


Blood Bonds

by laniew1



Series: Project Orion [3]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2020-10-29 05:07:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20791133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laniew1/pseuds/laniew1
Summary: Family is made from more than blood; it’s made from shared experiences and shared horrors and love that withstands the test of time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Blood Bonds 1/?**

Rosa gets a clean bill of health, Liz sits beside her on the bed, arm over her shoulder as Rosa looks between her and Arturo and Alex in his obviously military uniform.

“So Isobel isn’t human?” she says faintly, there’s something though, in the tone of her voice that indicates to Alex that she’d known _something_ was different about Isobel. She’s pale in the sweats and t-shirt he’s had her change into, and she has a piece of gauze pressed to the inside of her arm where they took blood to run tests against.

He hopes no one asks him what those tests actually are, because he’s honestly not sure what they could possibly be testing for that they already haven’t.

Now it’s up to him and Liz, with Arturo quietly interjecting to attempt to explain how Rosa came to be both alive and stuck in an alien stasis pod for 10 years.

“Can you tell us why you think Isobel is in trouble?” Alex says, he’s in a rolling chair because he was getting tired of standing and Canvers had given him the side eye when he’d saw him wince while he was escorting the doctor that had taken Rosa’s blood samples out.

Rosa leans into Liz’s side, and lays her hand over where Arturo has his pressed against her leg.

“She was acting weird,” Rosa says, “she was…” her nose wrinkles as she thinks. Alex had forgotten she did that.

“There was a boy a couple months ago, Andy, he kept hitting on me, saying things on how we were meant to be, how it was destined and written in the stars and all that bullshit that teenager girls probably ate up and believed,” Rosa’s voice is laced with sarcasm as she rolls her eyes.

“I told him, you know, that I didn’t like him like that, that…” her eyes flick to Arturo. “I told him that I’d go to the Sheriff if he didn’t back off, and he did, but then Is started acting weird and she, the last thing I remember she was going on and on about all those things that boy did and I think he _did_ something to her.”

“Rosa…” Liz starts.

“I know it sounds crazy, Alex,” she says, leaning forward to look him directly in the eyes. Focusing all her attention on him. “I know _I_ sound crazy, but her voice, she _sounded_ exactly like him and it was her, I know it was her, but it was like he was talking _through_ her.”

“It doesn’t sound crazy,” Alex says, he deals with aliens on a daily basis and has for years; there is very little that actually _sounds_ crazy anymore. “She’s here, if you want to see her.”

“You don’t have to,” Liz rushes to assure her.

“Of course I want to see her, I know that wasn’t Isobel that tried to hurt me,” Rosa says and she looks confused as to why they would even try to stop her from seeing Isobel.

Alex is left wondering if they should tell Rosa that Isobel is married, happily married to all outward appearances and that it is very likely that Isobel and Noah will actively start trying for kids now that Alex has laid to rest some of her fears.

He makes eye contact with Liz and she nods once at him.

He leaves to get Isobel and hopes that Liz will take care of it.

********************************

Michael, Max, Kyle, Isobel and Maria are all still waiting in his office when he gets there.

“He had to go into work, a conference call that he’d set up that he couldn’t cancel,” Isobel says when he raises an eyebrow at the missing Noah. “He’ll be back after lunch.”

“She’s awake and talking,” Alex says, he stops in front of the chair Isobel is perched in. “She’d like to see you if you’re amenable.”

Isobel is silent for long minutes and Alex thinks she’ll say no, he’ll have to go back to Rosa and tell her that Isobel doesn’t want to deal with the headache that Rosa’s reappearance is going to mean to her perfectly organized life.

“She’s not mad at me?” she finally asks in a small voice and Alex shakes his head.

“She clarified some things, they still need to be substantiated and we’ll want you to sit with Nasy to see if he can corroborate what she’s saying happened.”

“What is she saying happened?” Max asks, there’s a tone in his voice that indicates that he doesn’t really want to know but feels like he needs to, probably to try and get ahead of the fall out.

“Her belief is that Isobel was being actively possessed by Andy Diaz when Isobel attacked her,” Alex uses attacked because Rosa is very obviously not dead. Whether she had been killed when Andy/Isobel attacked her is a subject that he’s not going to put up for debate if he doesn’t need to.

Isobel stands, smoothing her hands down her shirt and the side of her pants. Michael and Max both stand as well, like they mean to accompany her.

“It’s Rosa,” she says and she shakes her head at them. She still takes both their hands and squeezes gently before following Alex out of the room.

Rosa is in the same position she was in when Alex left, sitting on the bed with Liz right next to her, Arturo on a chair in front of her. When they come in, the door closing quietly behind them she comes to her feet, Alex makes a mental note to find some socks or slippers for her.

“Isobel,” she says softly, reverently and her eyes are shining as she moves forward. Isobel steps forward as well, Alex wasn’t sure if she would with Noah hanging like an invisible elephant in the room.

The two women meet in the center of the room. Arms wrapping around one another and Rosa is sobbing into Isobel’s shoulder and Isobel has her face hidden in the waves of Rosa’s hair.

Arturo leans against the side of the bed, not looking at them, Liz has her hands folded together.

They don’t release each other, Isobel cups Rosa’s face in her hands and Rosa covers them with her own.

“Liz said you were married,” Rosa says and Alex looks over at where Liz is sitting and she nods, biting her lip and looking sad.

“His name is Noah,” Isobel says softly, “he’s…”

“He must be very special,” Rosa says, there are tears in her eyes, heartbreak that Alex doesn’t think that Rosa has had the time to process. When she went into the pod she had a girlfriend that it appears she seemed to love very much, now ten years has passed and her girlfriend has a husband.

Rosa leans forward to press a kiss to Isobel’s cheek, to the corner of her mouth.

“You were dead,” Isobel whispers, she lays her lips against Rosa’s forehead. “You were dead.”

********************************

Rosa claims exhaustion and Liz and Arturo leave with Isobel. Isobel still looks sad and pale, Rosa in extreme contrast just looks determined.

“Are you okay?” he asks, he’ll leave when she asks, but he doesn’t think Rosa being alone in the room with her thoughts is a good idea at the moment, though this is probably the safest place for her to be.

There is not an illicit drug to be found in this room, and even though Rosa is clean, was clean at the time of her ‘death’ he doesn’t’ want the stress of this situation to be the thing that kicks her back into using.

Liz is going to get Kyle and Maria and will be back, he can hang out with Rosa until she returns. Probably Liz and Maria will have a slumber party with Rosa to keep her busy and not thinking.

“He’s good? This man that she married?” Rosa asks, she has her knees drawn up to her chest.

“He’s good, and he’s good for her,” Alex says, the soft sad smile doesn’t reach her eyes.

“I’m fine, I’ll _be_ fine,” she says, she looks at him, studies his uniform. “I thought there was no earthly way that you were going to follow in your dads’ footsteps.”

“You weren’t the only one that had a bad bunch of days at the end of senior year,” Alex says, they’re past it now. Michael’s hand is healed, Alex has talked through the abuse suffered at his dads’ hands multiple times with therapists over the years.

“We should have just fled town and started our rock band,” Rosa says and Alex laughs at her.

“I’d forgotten all about that,” their crazy dream when they were kids and laughing in the Crashdown while Liz and Maria danced, and Alex ignored Kyle and he and Rosa traded off playing the guitar.

********************************

Isobel is surrounded by her brothers, and she looks so sad, thankfully not crying when Alex manages to get back to his office with Nasy in tow.

“He went to get food,” Max says, when he sees Alex looking around for Noah, he seems to keep missing the man. Max has his hand pressed to Isobel’s back and she’s leaning slightly into him.

“I’ll be as quick as possible,” Nasy assures her as he drags a chair in front of the couch the three of them are sitting on. Alex leans against his desk.

“What even are we looking for?” Michael asks, “I mean Is acted a little odd at times, forgot some stuff, but…”

“He would have tried to be as discreet as possible,” Nasy says as he takes Isobel’s hands in his. “Otherwise he would have been found out, and it sounds as if he was already skating on some very thin ice with Alex and Kyle’s fathers in regards to his actions with them.”

Isobel makes a noise when Nasy makes contact with her mind, he murmurs something that causes her to relax. He’s not connected to her for very long, Alex isn’t even sure what he’s looking for except for a sign that Andy Diaz had been in her mind.

She shouldn’t have any holes, not like what Alex and Kyle have.

“Nasy?” he asks.

“He’s definitely been in there,” Nasy sounds so enraged, Alex is glad that he’s forbidden from any contact with Andy until they figure out what they’re doing with him. “He barely even covered his tracks, and he was hiding absolutely nothing, I should have noticed it when I first met them, but I try not to pry or peek unless there’s something wrong.”

“I loved her,” Isobel says, and she sounds so broken, hands covering her face hiding her from their view. “I loved her and he _killed_ her using me. My face was the last thing she saw whether it was me in my body or not. Why even would he?”

“She’s not dead,” Alex says, feeling like he needs to stress this point. “And from what Rosa has said, he was infatuated with her and she turned him down, I’m sure at some point he saw her interact with you and thought to use you and her relationship with you in order to stay close to her.”

“He used me as a weapon against her,” Isobel says and now she’s just angry.

Alex wants her to be angry, she had her rights violated just like Rosa did, they should both be angry and be able to voice it.

********************************

“Am I going to get my car back anytime soon?” he asks when Canvers comes in to get his signature on a bunch of things that likely he could have had Tulliver slide onto his desk, probably Canvers wants to make sure he’s actually behind a desk sitting and not limping around the warehouse still.

“End of the week, I can get the guys processing things faster if Michael doesn’t want to play chauffer anymore?” Canvers asks, he glances over at where Michael and Max are sitting on the couch both with phones in hand.

“You can keep his car forever,” Michael says, “if I’m picking him up it means that he can’t work nineteen-hour days.”

“I only did that when we were in the unsecured facility,” Alex says in his defense. “Plus you have a job, Sanders is going to wonder where you are if you keep skipping off to come hang out with me.”

“Sanders is in Phoenix with his daughter and her new kid, I dial into the voice mail every morning to make sure there aren’t any emergencies,” Michael shrugs, he doesn’t even look up from his phone. “Mom comes and hangs out with me sometimes when I go in.”

“End of the week,” Canvers says, he pulls the final paper way.

“How are we going on building an identity for Rosa? I don’t want to keep her here for any longer then we need to.”

“It’s the government so slow and steady,” Canvers says. Which Alex sighs at, because he knows that.

Canvers passes Kyle as he leaves, and Kyle looks exhausted, though Alex knows better then to ask unless he wants the same question turned back on him.

“Did you know she already knew about my dad?” he asks and Alex raises an eyebrow. “About my dad being her dad, she knew already. Apparently there’s some space in your cabin that dad had set up for her to detox in and help her get clean.”

Alex frowns and glances over at where Michael looks just as confused.

“You mean like the guest room that my mom is living in?” Michael asks and Kyle shakes his head, going to sit on the arm of the couch next to Max.

“No, like your cabin has a basement or something, she says there’s a trapdoor in the living room,” he holds up his hand and there’s a key ring there with a symbol that etched onto that is obviously alien, even more obviously Antarian. “Girls are having a slumber party with Rosa, home renovations at the cabin?”

********************************


	2. Chapter 2

**Blood Bonds 2/?**

Kyle rides with Max and Alex slides across the seat as per usual once they’re off base so he can lean into Michael’s side and rest his hand high on his thigh.

Michael kisses his forehead when they’re stopped at a red light and Alex closes his eyes.

They beat Max and Kyle to the cabin, which is surprising only because Max and Kyle actually left first. Mara meets them at the door with a smile and Alex laughs as Michael hugs his mom then goes to change out of his uniform.

He hears Max and Kyle come in while he’s tugging on sweat pants and when he goes out he can see them all gathered around the furniture in the living room, Mara is sitting at the kitchen table watching with a bemused expression.

“She said there’d be a door,” Kyle says, he’s got a key ring that Alex doesn’t recognize in his hand.

“I’m sure she meant a trap door,” Alex says and he steps closer, some of the only things that Isobel didn’t touch when she was sprucing up the cabin in preparation for Mara’s arrival was the furniture in the living room. There’s a dark rug that runs under the couch, chair and coffee table.

Michael and Max must be of the same mindset because they both move to opposite sides of the couch and shift it out of the way, Kyle moves the coffee table over by the fireplace that Alex hasn’t ever used and then they move the chair.

Kyle pulls up one corner of the rug and rolls it back and there it is.

“I don’t remember this at _all_ from when we were kids,” Alex says and Kyle nods.

“He must have had it done after we stopped coming up here for weekends,” Kyle says, there’s a padlock on the door and Alex really kind of doesn’t want to know what’s down there.

“We’re fairly confident that your dad wasn’t a serial killer or into some shady shit that’s going to end up meaning we’re going to find a dead body down there, right?” he asks as Kyle fits the one key on the key ring into the lock. It clicks open when he turns it and he sets the lock to the side, then braces himself to open the door.

“I guess we’re going to find out.”

********************************

“I’m just going to wait up here,” Mara says and Alex thinks she’s the smartest person in the entire cabin at the moment.

Michael goes down first with a flashlight, then Kyle, then Max and then Alex carefully climbs the ladder down, Kyle’s hand on his back as he comes down the last couple.

Michael clicks on a light in the corner and it’s definitely a room that has been put together for a girl, there’s a small bathroom off to the side.

“You know we open the space up and make that ladder into stairs and this could be totally useable as like a TV room or something,” Michael says.

“Needs some paint and a _lot_ more light,” Alex says and Michael grins at him.

At the foot of the bed there’s a trunk that Kyle has flipped open and from where he’s standing he can see that there’s a stack of baby pictures, baby clothes, some clothing he remembers Rosa wearing as a teenager.

Probably when she’d died, Jim had packed up everything he had of hers, anything that screamed Rosa and put it in the trunk.

Then he locked the door to this room, hid it away so he didn’t have to look at what he’d likely perceived as a failure in his duty as a father to protect her.

********************************

Max takes a subdued Kyle home with a stack of pictures in hand. The room is dusty and makes Alex’s nose itch in a way that means he’ll be pulling out some allergy pills at some point.

“Needs a good dusting,” Michael says, he’s sitting on the corner of the bed watching Alex make his way around the small room.

Alex doesn’t think he’s noticed that the lampshade on the small bedside table has the symbol that was on Kyle’s keyring sliced into it, and with the light on it’s displaying that symbol on the wall.

He’s already tried to move the lampshade and it’s secure in its position, doesn’t move at all. The symbol is like an X on a treasure map.

Alex traces his fingers across it gently and he thinks Michael finally realizes what he’s looking at.

“That’s the symbol on the keyring Valenti had,” he says.

“Your brother is apparently in a relationship with him, at some point you’re going to have to call him Kyle.”

“Maxwell is fucking him, not me, I can call him Valenti until I’m good and ready to not,” Michael mutters.

Alex grins, then taps his knuckles against the wall.

“You think there’s something in the wall?” he hears and he hadn’t even heard Mara come down the ladder. “You were taking too long, I thought something might be wrong.”

“It’s hollow,” Alex says, “We’ll need something to bust it open.”

He glances around, then turns back when he hears a thud against the wall and then Michael wincing as he shakes his hand out.

“There’s a hammer in one of the kitchen drawers, can you get it for me Mara?” he asks as he takes Michael’s hand in his. The knuckles are scraped and red looking already.

“It looks easy in the movies,” Michael says sheepishly, Alex rubs the hand between his and then Michael leans in to kiss him.

“We just got your hand back to full working order, lets try not to break it again quite yet,” he murmurs.

Michael presses a hand against the back of his head and keeps him close, lips soft against his cheek as Alex lets his hands rest on his hips. He can hear Mara coming back down the ladder and when he looks over she’s beaming at them.

Michael reaches for the hammer and his mom hands it over and steps back.

“Right in the center of the symbol,” Alex directs and Michael hits the hammer against the wall, once, twice the third time it splinters and he tosses the hammer on the bed then uses his hands to break it open further.

“There’s something…” Michael says and when he pulls his arm back from the wall he has something in his hands. It’s wrapped loosely in cloth.

Mara steps closer as he opens it up and she makes a noise when the item is fully unveiled.

Alex knows what it is, he’s seen smaller and larger pieces and has a fully intact, functional spaceship sitting in the hangar on base.

“That’s part of one of our ships,” Mara says, she reaches out a shaking hand and it’s already lit up in Michael’s so it doesn’t do much more then shimmer at her touch.

“Why would Kyle’s dad have this in the wall down here?” Michael asks, he’s biting his lip and there’s _something_ he’s not saying, Alex can tell by the way he won’t quite meet his eyes.

“I’ll give you three guesses but I’m sure every appropriate response is some variation of keeping it away from my dad.”

********************************

Tuesday is a carbon copy of Monday except for the lack of stationary visitors in his office. Which means he can close the door and talk Davies down from killing all his guys.

“The sing-a-longs,” Davies mutters and he sounds like he’s at the end of his rope, “do your guys make you participate in sing-a-longs?”

“I think there was an attempt to force me to do karaoke once,” Alex says. “But it failed because I was sober and they all know I have a knife in my boot that I’m not afraid to use if they get unruly.”

Davies just sighs and Alex spends ten more minutes talking him off the ledge and reminding him that he chose his guys, which means on some level he has to actually like them.

When he hangs up he opens the door to see if Tulliver will get him some more of the good coffee that he keeps hidden somewhere and finds Noah sitting there waiting for him.

“I can fill that for you, sir,” Tulliver says brightly as he plucks the cup out of his hand and wanders down to their small break room.

“Come on in Noah,” Alex holds the door open and leaves it cracked after Noah is inside. He really needs more caffeine and Noah looks about done for. “I don’t think Isobel is here?”

“No,” Noah shakes his head, “No, she’s got some meeting with florists this morning and you had offered up the therapists so…” he rakes his hand through his hair and looks distraught. He kind of reminds Alex of the guy that couldn’t quite believe Isobel wasn’t human and kept trying to convince himself that he needed to buy a gun to protect her with.

Tulliver steps in sets his cup in front of her and sets another on the side of his desk for Noah and closes the door behind him when he leaves.

“Do you ever feel like you’re stealing someone else’s life?” Noah asks, he ignores the cup and just huddles in on himself.

All the times he’s ever interacted with Noah he doesn’t think he’s ever seen him less then perfectly put together.

“Isobel married you,” Alex says slowly, “Of her own free will.”

“Because she thought Rosa Ortecho was dead,” Noah says. “If she’d been alive, still, would she even have looked twice at me?”

“Noah…”

“She cried last night, she sat in our living room and pulled out photo albums I’ve never seen before and sobbed like her heart was breaking and…” Noah’s voice cracks. “Do I leave her? Do I let her go back to Rosa and try and figure out what my life is without her?”

“I think that’s a discussion you should really be having with her,” Alex says, he doesn’t want to give advice to Noah that ends up breaking up a marriage. Especially not knowing what Isobel’s thoughts are on the matter.

A couple days ago she’d been thinking and worrying about having children with Noah.

“She loves her,” Noah says, “if Rosa is who she wants, I should be the stronger one, right? I should be able to let her go so she can…”

“Noah,” Alex says sharply, and Noah looks up at him, startled. “Talk to Isobel. Do _not_ make any decisions that will ultimately impact your marriage without sitting down and talking to your wife first.”

********************************

  



	3. Chapter 3

**Blood Bonds 3/?**

Michael picks him at 1700 promptly, and they have their routine down, though in three days this new routine will be an old routine as Alex gets his vehicle back and can once more be his own transportation.

He lays his head against Michael’s shoulder and doesn’t say anything when Michael makes the left turn instead of the right turn. He’s going towards Sanders and Alex wonders what’s going on.

Wonders more when they get there, and Michael’s Airstream is moved from its normal position and there’s a bunker door open with Mara sitting in a lawn chair right next to it.

She looks pensive, sad and he really doesn’t want to go down in that bunker if whatever Michael has brought him here to see has put that expression on Mara’s face.

Michael doesn’t leave him much choice though, he holds out his hand and just looks at Alex with beseeching eyes, so Alex sighs and slides across the driver’s seat and lets Michael put a steadying hand on his arm and back as he climbs down.

“Do I even want to know?” Alex asks. Michael doesn’t answer, just leads him across the gravel to the hatch and goes down into the bunker, he looks at Mara and she manages a smile at him.

Michael is standing at a table when he gets down, the lights are bright and whatever Michael is there to show him is evidently covered by the tarp that he’s touching with his hands.

“I just want to say, that I haven’t been actively working on this or looking for pieces since I moved in with you,” Michael says and the look in his eyes screams of desperation for Alex to believe him.

“Okay, why don’t you show me what this is, and we’ll deal with it,” Alex prompts and Michael pulls the tarp away.

Alex isn’t the mechanical guy, that’s Canvers and Nasy and sometimes Whithers if one of the other two lets him actually touch anything.

But he knows enough about the alien tech they’ve been dealing with for years that he knows this is a drive engine from one of the Antarian ships. He presses his fingers against the empty space and it’s just big enough that…

“Yeah,” Michael winces.

“You were trying to reconstruct a drive engine,” Alex says evenly, the only piece missing is in the same shape as the piece they found in the cabin. “You were trying to leave.”

Michael shakes his head and he comes around the table and all but pulls Alex into his arms. Alex holds him tight, squeezes him to remind himself that he’s there.

“You left,” Michael says into his hair, “You left, and I was alone and… I thought I could build this and I’d go _home_ or I’d find people like me. I wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

He draws back, hands going to cup Alex’s face and Michael’s eyes are wet with unshed tears.

“Please don’t leave me,” Alex says, he’s not proud of the fact that he sounds like he’s begging.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Michael promises, he kisses him gently, fingers brushing over his cheekbones.

“It wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Mara says quietly from the stairs. “Antar is gone, destroyed. Any of our people still alive are scattered over this planet or other planets that they made it too. This is our home now.”

********************************

It’s a quiet trip back home, Michael grips his hand tight and Alex grips it back even tighter.

Needing the real, tangible evidence that Michael is sitting beside him in the truck and not having finished putting together the drive engine and flitting off to space to never return.

Michael follows him into the bedroom when he goes to change out of his uniform and stops him after he’s shed the BDU shirt and is going to the bed to sit down to remove the boots.

He lets Michael pull him into his arms, and stares into eyes that he sees the lingering fear of abandonment in.

That the evidence that Michael was trying to leave before he could be left will be the thing that causes Alex to end things once and for all.

But Alex isn’t going anywhere, not anymore.

He brushes his fingers against Michael’s face and kisses him, can feel Michael’s hands pressing against his back trying to pull him closer as Michael’s lips move gently against his.

“I love you,” he murmurs, he brushes his thumb against Michael’s lips, kisses his cheek.

“I love you too,” Michael says, his tone still screams that he’s worried that Alex is going to kick him out on his ass. And Alex would love nothing more then to take him to bed and curl up with him and ignore the outside world that contains a drive engine that is almost complete, a live Rosa that still needs documents and to be reintroduced to society, Noah who might possibly be, even at this moment, breaking Isobel’s heart because he thinks it’s what she wants.

Not to mention two teams going to Project Shepherd facilities that may or may not be functional and may or may not yield more survivors that they didn’t manage to save and Andy Diaz who they still need to figure out what to do with.

And Michael’s mom who is going to come in at some point because she’s likely hungry just like Alex is hungry and she doesn’t like to eat alone.

********************************

“We’re okay, right?” Michael asks before they leave the cabin in the morning and Alex reaches across the seat to squeeze his hand.

“We’re okay,” Alex says and Michael nods, doesn’t let go of his hand for the ride in.

He still feels off kilter enough at the realization that if Jim Valenti hadn’t found the piece Michael was lacking first and hidden it away in his cabin, that Michael might have been long gone before he got home. He tries not to think about the fact that Michael would have also probably have been _dead_ because Michael wouldn’t even have had the first clue on how to control the drive engine.

“I guess I should be glad that he didn’t find Nasy’s ship before we did,” he mutters and Canvers looks up from where he has his laptop balanced on his knees to shoot him his ‘worried for his sanity’ look.

“Michael is, was, finding the pieces and reconstructing a drive engine,” Alex says by way of explanation, Canvers just arches an eyebrow at him. “He was trying to leave, part of me is terrified he’s still going to decide this isn’t worth it and try and go anyway.”

“Have you gone blind in the last 24 hours?” Canvers asks. “Your Mister Guerin isn’t going anywhere, I’m half expecting he’s going to come in and ask us for your hand in marriage at some point and then we’re going to have to brawl over who gets to stand up as your best man.”

“I know that you know if it comes down to a fight that Perkins is going to just let you all battle it out then hog tie the winner and take the title herself.”

“True, plus she fights dirty when she really wants something,” Canvers says. Alex nods because she does.

He looks back over at his screen where they’ve been working on building an identity for Rosa, it’s just about ready to send off to the General so he can bless it and put it into the right channels that will make Rosalita Ortecho niece of Arturo Ortecho and formally of Campeche, Mexico into a real person that can hold a job and drive a car and not get scooped up by ICE on some random night.

********************************

“So I just sign them?” Rosa asks, she’s got one knee pulled up to her chest and she’s pale and looks tired. Likely her, Liz and Maria have been having some tough conversations.

“I’d try to make it different enough that anyone that knew Rosa Ortecho back then wouldn’t be able to see it and ask the wrong questions,” Alex says, he sits down at the table across from her.

“Liz says you’re dating someone, you didn’t go straight too, did you?” Rosa asks as she picks up the pen and stares at the paper, she shakes her head and pulls a napkin probably left over from her lunch over and scrawls her name across it. Then does it again.

“You want to talk about my love life?”

“Well mine is dead on arrival,” she says, he can hear the faint hint of bitterness in her voice. And sadness.

“Michael Guerin,” he says and she looks up at him with surprise in her eyes, he thinks she clocked the uniform and figured there was no way he was in a relationship with a guy. “They repealed Don’t Ask a while ago.”

“Your dad must be _thrilled_ about that,” Rosa says with a hint of a smirk on her lips.

“Well he’s in military custody for some other stuff so I think who I’m sleeping with is the least of his concerns at the moment.”

Rosa grins at him, the lines on her face fading a bit. Then she looks down, bites her lip and slowly signs her name.

“I’ll have to practice it,” Rosa says.

“Once I get your documents back we can sit down with Liz and Arturo and figure out an entrance plan for you,” Alex says, he reaches across the table and squeezes her hand and Rosa smiles at him.

“Liz and Maria are already making plans to take me out dancing,” Rosa says softly.

“That sounds like fun.”

“And papa says that it’ll hurt less over time,” Rosa presses her hand to her heart, like the fact that Isobel was able to move and get married while Rosa was dead is physically paining her. “I don’t see how when all I can think of is how much I miss her, how much I love her and want her sitting beside me right now as I practice my new fake signature, so I can be a real person again.”

“Rosa…”

“Tell me again that he’s a good person… that he loves her like I do… Tell me I shouldn’t try and fight for her…” Rosa whispers and she covers her face with her hands, so Alex can’t see her tears. It doesn’t matter, he can hear the fact she’s crying in her voice.

“He loves her,” Alex says, and he thinks about Noah wondering if he should give up his wife, so she can go back to Rosa. Rosa so heartbroken at the fact that Isobel was able to move and marry after she died.

He thinks that however Andy Diaz ends up being punished it’s not going to be enough for the pain that he caused Rosa and Isobel, for the loss of their dreams and the hopes for their future.

The pain he’s still causing them and now he’s managed to drag Noah into that loop as well.

“Isobel will probably try and introduce you to him at some point,” Alex says. “You’ll be able to determine for yourself whether he’s good enough for her.”

Rosa snorts, wipes at her eyes with a napkin that she hasn’t practiced her new signature on.

“Both Liz and Maria seem to like him,” she admits. “And Maria at least is normally a good judge of character, Lizzie on the other hand…”

“You’re just saying that because of Kyle,” Alex grins at her and Rosa shrugs.

“He was really mean to you in high school when he realized you were gay,” she says. “When I found out Jim Valenti was my dad I was like, god now I’m blood related to a guy that’s spent years tormenting one of my friends for his perceived sexuality what the hell is he going to think of me when he finds out.”

Alex raises an eyebrow at her.

“I had a _lot_ of time to think when he was trying to clean me up. He was the first, only person I told about Isobel and me.”

“Kyle’s changed a lot since high school,” Alex admits.

“Yeah, now he’s apparently a card carrying bi-sexual,” she flushes slightly. “I would never have thought that, but Liz says that him and Max sleep together when she’s not there.”

“I wouldn’t think they would work,” Alex shrugs, “but it’s been a few months and they seemed to have figured out how to manage it so…”

********************************

Fitzpatrick’s team calls in at 1645 so Alex has to shut his door and pull the blinds as he takes the call.

“Nothing here,” Fitzpatrick says, he’s transmitting a secure video and Alex can see the dark emptiness.

“Any sign that they were there at some point?” Alex asks.

“Not for a good long while,” Fitzpatrick shines his light down a long hallway. He can actually _see_ the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. “Davies and his boys have any better luck with the second location?”

“They haven’t called in yet,” Alex says. “Might be they found something and are occupied keeping it contained, might be they found nothing and are searching for something to salvage the location.”

“We found cells like you found at Caulfield,” Fitzpatrick admits. “They’re just as unused as everything else here so if they had Antarians here they moved them quite some time ago.”

“Looking at the records at Caulfield they never brought new prisoners in, just the ones that were there at the creation and managed to survive long enough for us to find them.”

“Hopefully they were just down manpower and moved them to the facility Davies is going to, otherwise…”

Otherwise there is the possibility of _another_ facility like Caulfield out there that Jim didn’t know about and they might never be able to find.

“We found a computer room and a file room during our original search of the facility. Computers are old and don’t look like they’ve been powered up in a while, so we’ll bring the hard drives with us to let our more tech savvy brethren have a look at them. File room is filled so I’ve got the boys packing up anything that screams evidence and even the things that don’t scream evidence just in case.”

“Safe travels,” Alex says and Fitzpatrick waves a hand at the camera and the screen goes dark. He glances at his phone and sees no messages from Davies. They should definitely be there by now and he debates texting to get a status update.

He’s hoping that if there was something wrong Davies or one of his boys would have called.

He still opens up text and shoots a quick SU? to Davies’ phone.

He powers down his laptop and no response comes through as he pushes himself to his feet, when he opens the door Michael is waiting there leaning against the wall staring at his door.

A glance at his watch shows it just clicking over to 1708.

“If Davies or his boys call in…” he looks at Tulliver.

“I’ll make sure they know to forward it to you,” Tulliver nods. “Have a nice night sir.”

“Something going on?” Michael asks as they maneuver down the hallway, he’s right beside him and though his hand doesn’t actually touch his back Alex knows that he wants to.

“Hopefully not,” Alex says, the power of positive thinking, he thinks.

If he thinks there is nothing wrong, then there will be nothing wrong.

********************************

  



	4. Chapter 4

**Blood Bonds 4/?**

It’s just the two of them that night at the cabin so Michael lets them sit on the couch with their plates of food after Alex has changed and removed the prosthetic for the night.

“Mom said we needed regrouping time,” Michael says after they’ve finished eating and he’s taken their plates back into the kitchen, he sits right next to him and Alex leans over to brush a kiss against his cheek then lays his head on Michael’s shoulder relaxing into his side.

“We’re okay,” Alex says as he reaches for his hand.

“I hadn’t even really thought about it since I started staying here,” Michael says softly. “We just, we found that piece and I saw it and went it’s the last one and then I looked at you and realized it didn’t matter anymore.”

“I want it to not matter,” Alex admits, “but you started building it for a reason.”

Michael twists and looks at him and Alex doesn’t know what he’s seeing on his face but Michael presses his fingers against his jaw and kisses him. Alex lets his hand rest on the back of Michael’s head.

“You left,” Michael says, “and after a while it became abundantly clear that you weren’t planning on coming back and Max and Isobel didn’t need me here fucking things up for them and I just thought…”

“You know they would have been devastated if you left without even saying anything,” Alex says, he combs his fingers through Michael’s hair, leans in to kiss the side of his mouth.

Michael wraps an arm over his shoulder.

“They had a family and they were building lives and,” Michael shrugs and sighs. “It felt like I was just holding them back because I didn’t have that and I couldn’t seem to build anything.”

Alex knows that leaving was the right thing to do at the time; if he’d stayed he has no doubt his father would have figured out a way to kill one or both of them and make it look like an accident.

He knows that Michael’s abandonment issues stem from more then just Alex leaving, it’s from a childhood of being separated from Max and Isobel and shuffled through the system and never having one place to call his own. But he still feels like all he did was reinforce Michael’s negative image of himself as being someone not worth staying for.

“I told Maria once that I’d stay if you just kept kissing me,” Alex says softly, he drags his fingers across Michael’s lips.

“I would have kept kissing you if you’d let me,” Michael says, as if to prove it he kisses him, a soft press of his lips and Alex grins, it probably looks awkward as hell as Alex shifts to straddle him and Michael helps him as he realizes what he’s trying to accomplish.

His hands push up under Alex’s t-shirt as he kisses him, Alex drags his hands through his hair and squirms just the tiniest bit closer.

Michael keeps him close with hands pressed to his back and hips.

“I love you,” Alex murmurs between kisses and he can feel tension that he’s sure Michael wasn’t even aware of releasing as Michael relaxes into him.

“Love you too.”

********************************

“I can take it apart,” Michael says later when they’re curled up in bed together, Alex with his head on Michael’s shoulder, leg over his to keep him in place and drawing hearts with his fingers against Michael’s stomach.

“You don’t need to do that,” Alex says. “Though the bunker at Sanders is not the most secure place, you should move it here, maybe that would be a good use of…” he doesn’t even know what to call the secret bedroom.

“I don’t need it anymore,” Michael says, lips brushing against his forehead. “I’ve got you and I’ve got my mom…”

“And Max and Isobel,” Alex murmurs.

“Yeah,” Alex can feel him making a face against his skin and he smiles.

“And Liz and Maria and Kyle and Noah,” he presses.

“So what you’re trying to tell me is that my life is full of people who would totally miss me if I decided to skedaddle off to parts unknown.”

********************************

“Happy Friday, sir,” Tulliver says as Alex gets himself situated behind his desk.

“What have you got there?” Alex jerks his head at the folders in Tulliver’s hands, his laptop finishes booting and he types in his password as he waits for Tulliver to start laying things out.

“Documentation for Ms. Ortecho came in for your review right after you left last night.”

“Any blowback on our original request?”

“No, Sergeant Canvers did a quick review of it and wanted me to highlight the fact that they lumped in documentation for Mr. Ortecho as well, they don’t specify what it’s for but Sergeant Canvers seemed to think it’s mostly an apology for the attempted murder and kidnapping of his daughter by an Antarian.”

Alex flips through the folder, he’ll need to set some time aside to sit down with Arturo and go through the documents, though it looks like they kept all his pertinent information the same.

“Any word from Lieutenant Davies?” he asks as he pulls his cellphone out of his pocket, still no response to his text. Though he can see that it was delivered and read.

“Nothing, Sergeant Canvers and Barrows seem to think there’s something going on, none of Lieutenant Davies team is responding to texts at all.”

“No news is good news,” Alex says, even as he opens his last text to Davies and sends a follow up ‘???’

When he glances up Tulliver is raising an eyebrow at him.

“You’ve not been with us nearly long enough for that eyebrow to have any real meaning,” Alex says, he’s got seventeen e-mails from Canvers and Barrows, they must not be _too_ horribly worried as they’d not sent a single text to him after he left.

“I’ve heard stories sir,” Tulliver says.

“And when you’ve lived those stories first hand with us then you can arch the eyebrow at me, send Canvers in from wherever he and Barrows are hiding trying to plot out a road trip without actually having authorization to do that.”

“I’m sure they would never…”

Alex arches an eyebrow at him and Tulliver makes a face.

“I’ll find them for you sir.”

********************************

Barrows follows Canvers in and shuts the door firmly behind them.

“No,” Alex says preemptively.

“They could need help, sir,” Canvers says and he’s got his wide eyes and Barrows nodding next to him.

“And if Lieutenant Davies and his boys needed help they would call for an assist, as they have in times past. They haven’t called for an assist so we’re going to sit here and wait patiently for them to tell us what they need because we’re not the primaries on this field op,” Alex states.

“What if they’re injured or…” Canvers begins

“Their radios could be down, and they’ve got no way to call for help,” Barrows finishes.

“And if either of those things have happened they have multiple means to contact us, they haven’t asked for our help so we’re going to take a step back and let our little brothers do their job and not act like they can’t.”

“Yes sir,” is the muttered contrite response.

“Now, am I getting my vehicle back or are Michael and I continuing our adventures in carpooling next week?”

“I’m sure Mr. Guerin would be perfectly content if we lost your car,” Canvers says. “But we finished up with it last night.”

“You’re lucky that I let you keep it that long, he didn’t assault me in my vehicle or take my vehicle when he took me, so why was my vehicle considered a crime scene?” Alex asks idly.

Canvers just opens his eyes wide like he can’t believe Alex is questioning his decisions and Barrows’ face takes on that glazed ‘I really don’t want to be a part of this conversation’ look. Alex just looks at them.

“He was really worried,” Canvers says finally. “It made him feel better, more in control to be the one bringing you back and forth.”

“We had your car detailed and fully cleaned,” Barrows says helpfully. “McDonald even found one of those air fresheners that make it smell like new car.”

********************************

Alex texts Michael that he has his vehicle back and while he’s welcome to follow him home if he wants to that he’ll be home (hopefully) at the regular time while he’s eating a rushed lunch while on a conference call with the General and Fitzpatrick. Thankfully it’s not a video conference where he would have to duck out of camera view and eat while remembering to mute and unmute when he needs to respond.

Fitzpatrick hangs up once he’s reported out on what they did and didn’t find.

Did find some old computers and dusty files, didn’t find any Antarians being held in prison like conditions.

“So we’ve had no communication with Lieutenant Davies or his team for…”

“Just going on 36 hours now,” Alex says.

“Your boys and girls are closer,” the General prompts.

“He hasn’t called for assistance, sir.”

“I don’t like the silence, last time one of our teams was radio silent for this long you spent three weeks in a medically induced coma and lost part of your leg.”

“I’m aware,” Alex says, he makes a face even though he knows the General can’t see him. “But they’re also not in the middle of a semi-active warzone so they don’t have a specified check in time before we have to scramble teams to assist.”

The General grumbles nonsense into his receiver and Alex hides his smile behind his hand.

********************************

  



	5. Chapter 5

**Blood Bonds 5/?**

He’s halfway home when he gets the call. He can’t say he’s not been expecting it, he’d just kind of hoped that it would come in _before_ he’d left work and almost made it home and into his weekend.

As it is he turns off the road and answers the call before he gets himself pointed back in the direction of the base just in case it’s just Davies calling in for a much belated sit rep and not an actual call for assistance.

“What’s happened?” he asks and it sounds like there is complete and utter pandemonium on the other end.

“We’re on our way back to you,” Davies says, his voice sounds strained and slightly muffled. “We’re going to need whatever medical staff on duty is available and it would be nice to have a healer or two if we can get them.”

“Have one of your guys text or call Canvers with what you need, do you want to give me a sit rep now?”

“No, not right now,” Davies says, his voice is strained so Alex doesn’t push. He thinks if he does he might actually push the poor Lieutenant right over the edge and right now he needs Davies to stay as calm as possible and as in control as possible.

If he’s panicked his guys will be panicked which will end in the situation spiraling likely even more than it already has.

“We’re maybe twenty minutes out,” Davies says, Alex can tell that he’s forcing himself to breathe.

“Okay, do you want to stay on the line with me or do you want to concentrate on whatever you’re dealing with on your end?”

“I’ll see you in twenty minutes or so,” Davies says and Alex smiles.

He doesn’t think as he drives back to base, doesn’t let his brain goes through worst case scenarios because he knows from past experience that it doesn’t help.

He listens to the radio, and he focuses on the road and he’s almost relieved when he sees the signs and entrance for the base.

He’s still in uniform so he gets waved back on, and parks back in the space he feels like he literally just left. Canvers meets him at the door.

“Already called Nasy, he’s bringing Tahl in with him. He suggested calling Max and I took it upon myself to call Michael since I knew you weren’t going to have the time.”

“Don’t let them in the bays, not until we know what we’re dealing with,” Alex says, he scans his badge to enter the bay and Canvers turns back likely to go meet Nasy and Tahl.

“Do we know anything?” he asks when Barrows steps up to him.

“Just what Canvers got texted, healers if possible, kind of sounds like maybe they ran into a Caulfield except a hundred times worse.”

“Wonderful,” Alex mutters.

He hears the alarms sound before the bay door opens and he takes a breath, forces his shoulders to relax and waits for the vehicles to enter.

The one is easily recognizable as one of the ones they left in, the other is a large light blue van that is definitely not military issue and he can see Davies sitting stiffly in the passenger seat before the vehicle stops and his door opens.

His team moves fast, opening doors and he hears the yelling before he actually gets a visual on what’s happening.

There’s four of them and he didn’t think it would be possible, but they look _worse_ then the survivors they found at Caulfield.

They're all gaunt and frail and look as if someone breathes too heavily they might literally shatter into a million pieces.

The man yelling is an older man, short brown black hair liberally streaked with gray, familiar eyes that Alex doesn’t expend the energy trying to place. He’s clutching at another older man, hands wrapped tightly around his arm and he’s fighting the efforts of everyone trying to get them out of the van.

“It’s okay,” Alex says calmly, he steps up to the open door and waves away a couple of Davies’ guys that are pale and look shaken to their cores. “We need to get you out of there,” he says and the older man looks at him, eyes all but begging him to _do_ something.

“If I let go of him he’ll die,” he says and his voice is hoarse and shaky from disuse or misuse, Alex can’t decide and it doesn’t matter.

“You don’t need to let go of him,” Alex says, he keeps his voice soft and even, trying to radiate calm that he doesn’t really feel at the moment. He takes a step closer and reaches out a hand, “you keep hold of his arm like you are and Sergeant Barrows and I will help you get him out of there, okay?”

He looks at him and it strikes Alex suddenly that this man has Max’s eyes, he doesn’t think any deeper or longer. Just lets out a breath and reaches out a hand and between him and Barrows they manage to maneuver around the older man and help them both out of the van without anyone having to let go.

“There’s a healer coming,” Alex says when they have them out and the other man is laying on the ground, half in his companions lap. The bone structure of his face is familiar Alex decides and he’s really hoping that he didn’t have Canvers make the call to bring Max and Michael here only for them to watch as members of their family actually die right in front of them.

“His name is Rath,” the man says helplessly, “he… they all protected me and I don’t think any of them thought of what would happen when I was the last one left because they all were so focused on making sure I stayed alive.”

“You’re Zan, right?” Alex asks and the man, Zan, Max’s _fucking father_ looks at him in surprise. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t confirm or deny and Alex doesn’t need him to. Now that he’s really looking he can see the similarities between father and son.

“Until the healer arrives, I have doctors that are aware of your physiology, they can help determine a best course of action if you’d like,” Alex offers. He can see Evie out of the corner of his eye and she’s general care mostly, but she’s got the most soothing bedside manner of any of their medical personnel on staff.

She’s one of two doctors that Nasy will actually let touch him when there’s something wrong with him.

“They just left us and…” Zan brushes at his face angrily with the hand that he doesn’t have firmly gripping Rath’s arm.

Alex waves Evie over and she offers a small smile to Zan as she goes to her knees beside them and starts running her hands over Rath’s skin.

He’s thin and pale.

“He’d been injured before they left us,” Zan waves at his side and Evie pushes the shirt away, there’s a circular mark there that screams of an injury but also looks as if it was healed. Zan looks embarrassed at the fact that there’s still a mark.

“They were starving us even before they abandoned us, I tried to heal it but…” he lowers his eyes.

“We’re going to need to push IV’s, get their electrolyte balances back up to even the barest minimum before I can even get a proper baseline," Evie says.

“It’s all I can do to keep him breathing,” Zan whispers.

“I can heal him, your highness,” Alex hears and when he turns in surprise he can see Tahl standing there, Nasy right next to him and there’s determination and focus written into every line of Tahl’s face, shock and awe and desperate _hope_ on Nasy’s.

Alex doesn’t move, when Tahl walks close, he lays his hand across the wound that is partially healed on Rath’s abdomen and it takes a moment for his hand to glow yellow, the relief in Zan’s face is almost too much to see.

“Medical,” Alex says, “whatever they need, okay?”

He hears the multiple ‘yes, sirs’ as Nasy gives him his arm to help him to his feet.

“Tahl?”

“I’ll stay with Rath,” he nods and there is a thousand things being said in the look he shoots Nasy but Alex doesn’t have the energy or time to deal with them.

He waits until Evie and her team ushers away the four survivors in beds and wheelchairs before he turns to Davies.

“Everything, start from the beginning.”

********************************

The beginning has Davies and his boys reaching the site at mid-morning.

“We could tell it was abandoned right away,” Davies says. “So honestly we took our time because we weren’t actually expecting to find anything.” Curry nods his agreement.

“We cleared the file room first and that’s when O’Brien noticed that a couple of devices were still recording information, so we followed the lines and we found…” Davies waves his hand.

“How many dead?” Alex asks.

“Nine dead,” Davies rubs a hand over his face. “Logically I know they’d been dead before we even got there, but I think of the two hours we could have found them and…”

“No what ifs,” Alex says firmly. “They don’t get us anywhere.”

“They had them all locked in one cell, both the ones we found alive and the ones we found dead, I don’t really know how they handled it. It took us about thirty minutes to get them out,” Davies breathes slowly, “we left the dead there, we couldn’t…”

“We couldn’t treat any of the living, they literally took even the Band-Aids when they abandoned the site, you said survivors come here so we found a van on site and we left the other vehicle behind,” Curry says. He sounds so angry, Alex can completely understand the emotion even though he knows at the moment it’s not helpful and not likely to garner them any results.

Canvers takes Curry out after that, closing the door firmly behind him in a way that leads Alex to believe that at the very least Michael is sitting out there bugging Tulliver wanting to know what the hell is going on, he can’t tell because the blinds are closed.

“They left them there to starve to death,” Davies says, he’s staring at his hands, “what kind of monsters, these people didn’t do a god damn thing to them and they just picked up and left like they were something to be discarded, that someone else would sweep in and take care of it.”

“Likely the site has similar self-destruct mechanisms as Caulfield, there’s probably a timer counting down and someday soon we would have heard of a massive explosion at some abandoned military or medical site and we would have checked it up to hooligans or a meth lab,” Alex says.

Davies rubs his hands over his face.

“You were so calm back there, is that a training class you take when you make Captain? Or is it an optional one I can take now?”

********************************

  



	6. Chapter 6

**Blood Bonds 6/?**

“I’ll send a team,” the General says, his voice is stiff with anger though he looks like it’s just a random Friday that has all of them on a conference call at 2000 when at least half of them should be home enjoying the start of their weekend.

Alex should be curled up on a couch with his head on Michael’s shoulder not watching whatever he’s queued up on their Netflix belly full of whatever Michael had decided to cook up for them that day.

Instead he’s got Davies radiating both sadness and anger and he’s got the General pissed though probably only half of them can tell, and he’s not had dinner yet so he’s trying to be calm even though he’s starting to get on the wrong side of angry for being hungry.

“We’ll take it,” Fitzpatrick says and the General nods.

“Pull everything,” the General says, “Find out from Nasedo what they would like us to do with their dead, we’ll honor their wishes as much as possible.”

“At the very least we should get pictures, see if we can maybe identify them,” Alex says and the General says.

“I’ll send you a file when we get there,” Fitzpatrick says, the General waves him off the line and the others sign off one at a time until it’s just the General, Alex and Davies.

“How you holding up son?” the General asks gently.

“I’m fine sir,” Davies breathes, Alex rolls his eyes and the General just looks at them. “I am, or I will be, just there was a little bit there where I was worried that I was going to get here and there was just going to be four more dead Antarians and…”

“Take a few minutes and breathe, get something to eat, check in with your guys,” the General says kindly, Davies nods and Alex nods once to indicate that he can go.

His eyes glance back at Alex when he opens the door and Alex can see half of Michael before the door closes again.

“How’s he _really_ doing?” the General presses.

“He’s going to be fine,” Alex says and the General nods but still looks as if he doesn’t believe him.

“He will be, it’ll take some time, but he got the four survivors here and managed to get them here without incurring any more casualties.”

“Make sure he talks to someone, that all his boys do, we can’t afford anyone having a mental break right now, not if we can make sure they don’t need to.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How’s Nasedo handling things?”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet, he’s next on my list after I’m done with you,” Alex says. And he has an actual list in front of him.

_Debrief Davies, check._

_Check in with Nasy._

_Check in with Michael._

_Eat something (maybe Michael will have brought food?)_

_Check in with Evie on the status of their survivors. Determine best course of medical help for them._

********************************

He takes a moment after the General hangs up to put his head in his hands and breathe.

Then he gets up from his desk, winces at the shock of pain that radiates up his leg and slowly makes his way to the door.

Michael and Max are both waiting there when he opens it. They both look equal parts confused and concerned.

“I need to see Nasy as soon as he’s able to pull free,” Alex tells Tulliver. “And can you look and see if there are any granola bars or MRE’s in the break room? Maybe some coffee? And see if they have a spare set of crutches in medical?”

“Yes, sir,” Tulliver nods, pushing himself away from his desk.

“Come on in,” he waves at Michael and Max. “I’ve got at least a couple of minutes before Nasy is likely to show up.”

“Is there something wrong with your leg?” Michael asks and he’s got the expression on his face that means he’s itching to get his hands on Alex’s leg and help.

“Just on it for too long, I can’t take it off until I have another way to get around though,” Alex says sensibly as he turns to go back into his office.

“If you’re hungry I can text Liz and have her bring something,” Max offers and Alex shrugs as he shuts the door behind him.

It affords him the privacy so that he can allow himself to cling to Michael when he pulls him into his arms, just for a few seconds while Max taps on his phone ignoring them. Michael brushes a kiss against his cheek, just looks at him and he must look wrecked or exhausted because the worry on his face doesn’t lessen any.

“You can’t tell us what’s going on, can you?” he says, he sounds sort of resigned about being kept in the dark.

“Not yet, but it’s just until we get a handle on the situation and have a better idea of what we’re dealing with,” Alex says, “you could do me a favor though?”

Michael just looks at him, like he’s not sure if he wants to agree to anything that Alex is going to ask for.

“Go get your mom and bring her here?” Alex says carefully, he keeps his voice even, but Michael seems to capture the underlying meaning without him even uttering another word.

“You won’t tell Max what’s going on while I’m gone?” he asks, and Alex shakes his head. Kisses his cheek and lets Michael hug him tightly.

The tap of the door has him drawing away and when he opens it Tulliver hands him two granola bars and a bottle of water and then hands off the crutches he’d had under his arm off to Michael who is holding out his hands expectantly.

“Sergeant Canvers says you can have coffee after you eat those and take your pills.”

“Tell Sergeant Canvers that while he’s not the boss of me I will take my pills and expect that caffeine will be coming shortly,” Alex says and Tulliver nods.

“Breakroom was out of pods, the Sergeant said he’d bring you a cup when he brought Nasedo to you.”

********************************

Michael leaves to go get Mara when Liz arrives with food, Alex would be a little embarrassed by how quickly he rips open the bag when she hands it over.

“Papa sent along a milk shake as well, because apparently you’re his favorite right now,” Liz says and Alex grins at her, the tap at the door stops her from saying whatever she was going to say. When he looks over to the door he sees Canvers with a cup in his hand and Nasy right behind him looking exhausted.

“We’ll go hang out with Rosa,” Max says as he takes Liz’s hand and pulls her towards the door.

Canvers shuts it behind them and then locks it for good measure.

“So?”

“Dehydration, starvation,” Canvers says after he sits the cup down in front Alex and flops down in one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. Nasy keeps standing, though he thankfully doesn’t start pacing. “The one, Rath, he’s the most seriously injured of the four. He had some injuries that from what we can tell Zan kept trying to heal. But the dehydration, starvation, etcetera kept him from healing anything except for the surface injuries.”

“Did I just send Michael to get Mara only for them to come back and find out that Rath is dying?” Alex asks with no small measure of alarm.

“Tahl thinks he’s healed the most serious internal injuries, you know the equipment doesn’t quite work on us the way that it would work on you,” Nasy says, he rubs his hands over his arms like he’s cold then finally sits in the chair next to Canvers, perching right on the edge of the seat.

“Zan is Max’s father, right?” Alex asks and he waits for Nasy to nod at him. “And Rath is Michael’s dad? Mara’s husband? What about Isobel?”

“Zan is Isobel’s uncle, his sister Vilandra was, _is_ Isobel’s mother,” Nasy says, his lips twist and his eyes go sad. “I’d hoped that if we found them that they’d all be together. The last I saw of them those three were together.”

“We don’t know that they weren’t,” Alex says carefully and Nasy nods.

“Lieutenant Davies stopped into check to see how things were going, he said there were nine dead, he didn’t think any of them were female but…”

“Until we know for sure then Isobel’s mother is still alive out there and we’ll find her.”

********************************

Alex has finished eating and he’s removed the prosthetic, rubbing some of the cream that Evie dropped on his desk along with four folders with medical diagnoses for their four new Antarians.

He’s tired and it’s just shy of midnight, he and Michael should be in bed. He’s not, he’s pinning up the leg of his uniform and waiting for Michael to get back with Mara.

He had Canvers and Nasy leave the door open when they went back to Medical and Michael peers in, Mara at his shoulder before he enters.

Alex doesn’t stand, the crutches are propped against his desk, but he waves them in. Max follows closely behind them.

“No Isobel?” he asks, because he figured the first thing one of them would have done was call their sister and bring her up to speed on the fact that something is happening even though neither of them really have no clue as to what’s happening.

“Her and Noah,” Max shrugs and doesn’t make eye contact with any of them. Alex really hopes that Noah isn’t in the process of breaking Isobel any further, the two of them are in a tough spot, Alex isn’t sure how he’d handle it if a long supposed dead lover of Michael’s suddenly returned to the living.

“So why the sudden need for Healers?” Michael asks, he’s got his mom’s hand clenched in his own and he looks like he’s expecting nothing but bad news. For her part Mara looks calm, she just runs her hand over Michael’s arm and waits for Alex to talk.

“Lieutenant Davies and his team were checking out another site that we got from the old Project Shepherd files,” Alex says. “They found four survivors, three of them are in good shape all things considered, Nasy and Tahl seem to be hopeful that they were able to treat the fourth soon enough that he’ll make a full recovery.”

“More survivors?” Mara says and the look in her eyes, the desperate _hope_, the _longing_ is almost too much.

“I didn’t get the names of the other two,” Alex says, he’s sure the medical files on his desk will have that information but those aren’t the ones that these three want to hear about. “But Rath and Zan, those were the other two survivors.”

Mara just stares at him, tears welling up in her eyes as she stares at him.

“Mom?” Michael asks softly.

“Rath is your father,” she says faintly, her lips are quivering, voice shaky as tears stream down her face. “And Zan is yours,” she says to Max, reaching out to take his hand.

“What about Isobel?” Max asks and Alex shakes his head.

“Can we see them?” Mara asks.

********************************

Nasy meets them at the door when they make the slow walk to where their new guests are being quartered for the time. He can tell that Mara would likely be running, it’s not like she doesn’t know the way, but she moves slowly in deference to the fact that Alex is on crutches and Michael is hovering.

“Mara,” he says softly, helplessly.

Mara takes a slow breath and then pushes past him, entering the room first, Alex following behind her so Michael can hold the door for him and Max behind him.

Zan is sitting by Rath’s bed, hand laid over his arm, he looks almost 20% better than he did the first time Alex saw him. He’s clean at least, and in pale gray sweats and bare feet. He looks up at the sound of their steps and his eyes go wide.

“Mara,” Zan he breathes and he’s coming to his feet slowly, Alex makes note that he supports himself by using the bed, though he winds both his arms around Mara when she rushes at him. She tilts his head down and kisses his forehead, brushes the tears in his eyes away with her thumbs.

“Ava?” she asks and it’s not a name Alex is familiar with, there’s something in the tone of her voice that sounds off though he can’t place it.

For his part Zan’s face crumples and his eyes close.

“She betrayed us,” he murmurs, his voice is barely loud enough to hear and Mara jerks.

“That was her last parting shot at us when Rath was trying to get us to evacuate, she wrote something into the programming of the pods the children were being transported in,” Zan collapses back into his chair and Mara goes to her knees in front of him, holding both his hands. “I didn’t even know that was something she knew _how_ to do.”

“The children are fine,” she soothes, her voice is so fierce and she looks over her shoulder drawing Zan’s attention to the fact that she hadn’t come in alone. Her eyes are bright and when she holds out her hand both Max and Michael move forward.

Zan’s eyes widen and the absolute longing in them when he looks at Max is something transcendental, he struggles to find the energy to get to his feet again.

“Max and Michael,” Mara says, she helps Zan stand, arm around his waist even as her other hand reaches out to touch Rath’s arm laying still on the bed.

“Someone found out what Ava had planned and wrote a competing line of code to keep it from working,” Mara says and Zan holds out a shaking hand that Max takes.

There’s more to it than that of course, but Alex doesn’t think is really the time or place to go into the fine point.

********************************

  



	7. Chapter 7

**Blood Bonds 7/?**

Alex leaves them in the room, Mara in a chair that Michael pulls over for her, leaning into her side as Mara clasps Rath’s hand between her own.

Max kneels by his father and Zan just stares at him in wonder, Alex hadn’t asked if the Ava that Zan had mentioned was Max’s mother, it sort of sounds like she wasn’t.

Nasy meets him outside the door, Canvers at his shoulder.

“They need some time, let’s try and give them as much privacy as possible,” Alex says and Canvers nods.

“Medical will stay away as long as they’re allowed to do their checks, I’ll have them make them as intermittent as possible. They hope that Rath will wake up soon and then they can back off even that much more.”

“Nasy…” Alex starts and Nasy shakes his head.

“I didn’t even know they made it off Antar,” Nasy says, “This means that someone _has_ interfered with my ship computers ability to process the information that should have being sent to any ship of Antarian origin.”

“We’ll see if it’s something that can be undone,” Alex soothes. “Have Sullivan plug in and we can hopefully at least triage the situation.”

Because chances are there is at least one more family member out there somewhere, whether she’s alive or dead Alex doesn’t know.

He’s hoping for alive though.

********************************

Rosa is curled up in her bed with a tablet in hand when Alex taps on her door.

“I thought you went home?” she asks when he goes in and she sits the tablet aside, he can see a game screen before the screen goes blank.

“Got called back,” he says, he doesn’t elaborate any further and she doesn’t press. Old Rosa would have pressed, this Rosa is still bruised by the missing years. He glances at the tablet again.

“Liz, she gave it to me so I could catch up on things, but the world is fucking insane so…” Rosa shrugs, “games are sort of mindless and I don’t have to really think to play them.”

“I thought she’d still be here,” Alex says as he slides into a chair, leaning his crutches against Rosa’s bed. She glances down at his leg but doesn’t say anything.

“I sent her home, she looked like she was going pass out and don’t need her here fucking up her back on the hospital beds when she can sleep in her own.”

“We’ll hopefully have you out of here in a couple of days, by Monday for sure,” Alex says and Rosa’s mouth twitches.

“I asked her to run away with me, you know?” Rosa says, she draws her knees up to her chest and lays her cheek against them. She looks almost impossibly young to Alex’s eyes, younger even then the nineteen he knows she was when she was put in the pod.

“Where were you going to go?”

“I don’t know, didn’t really have a plan or anything, just somewhere not here. I’d bought bus tickets and had money stashed and I was going to get us out of here, should have known the universe would figure out a way to fuck it all up.”

“Rosa…” Alex starts.

“I’m just being silly,” Rosa brushes the back of her hand across her eyes, bites her lip. “I thought she was my future, you know, stupid kid stuff.”

Alex is saved from having to figure out how to respond by the tap at the door.

“It’s not locked,” Rosa calls out and to his surprise and probably Rosa’s as well it’s not medical staff checking on her wellbeing, it’s Michael peeking his head in.

“I thought you’d still be…” Alex says, reaching for his crutches, Rosa helpfully leans them closer to him without getting off the bed.

“Mom is kicking us out, wants us to go home and sleep and doesn’t want us back until tomorrow morning, sometime after nine preferably,” Michael recites, he drags his hand through his hair and beyond his shoulder Alex can see Max looking irritated as well.

“Is she staying?”

“Doc said they’d set up a bed for her if she wanted, I told her I could just sleep on one of those too, they weren’t the worst bed I’ve ever slept on but she told me to take you home,” Michael sighs heavily, behind him Max is rolling his eyes and Alex looks back at Rosa to mask _his_ grin.

“Go home, sleep, whatever,” Rosa says waving her hand at him, “I’m just going to play games and Liz gave me her Netflix so I guess I’ll catch up on 10 years of TV that I missed or something.”

********************************

Alex leaves his car there, sliding into the truck with Michael. When they’re off base and he’s pressed up warm against Michael’s side, hand resting on his thigh, head on his shoulder he relaxes. Closes his eyes and lets Michael humming along to the radio lull him into a not sleep.

He doesn’t even notice when they get home, not until Michael brushes his lips against his forehead, hands cupping his face.

“Come on,” Michael murmurs as he opens the door and Alex slides out the driver’s side. Michael already ready with crutches, he can see the prosthetic peeking out of the bag Michael has slung over his shoulder.

“I didn’t realize I was so tired,” Alex murmurs and Michael snorts as he follows behind him up the steps, then nudges him to the side so he can unlock the door.

“That’s what happens when you don’t sleep more than five hours a night, eventually it’s going to catch up with you,” Michael says and Alex makes a face. He’s got by on less sleep then that for longer periods of time, but he has a feeling if he tries to say that Michael is going to make that face at him.

He really just wants to curl up in bed with Michael next to him and sleep, even if it’s only for 5 hours, so he doesn’t say anything. Just watches as Michael locks the doors and sets the alarms and when he sees he has it all in hand he makes his way slowly to their bedroom.

Gets his shirt unbuttoned and hung up, does the same way his pants though he has to sit to slide them down his legs. He sits there with the crutches leaning against the bed for a moment, then gets back to his feet to drape them over the chair, heads into the bathroom. It’s while he’s brushing his teeth and trying to decide if he wants to shower now or in the morning that he realizes that they’re alone in the cabin.

Michael is waiting outside the bathroom door when he comes out and he leans in for a kiss. Michael’s hands going to his hips and pulling him close. He nips at his bottom lip and winks at him before he nudges him in the direction of the bed on his way into the bathroom.

There’s a glass of water on his nightstand, pills setting in a little bowl next to it with a couple of crackers, he can’t help but smile as he sits down on the edge of the bed, drops the pills in his hand and then eats two of the crackers.

The t-shirt comes off and he’s shimmying out of his underwear when Michael comes out of the bathroom naked.

“We are alone in the house,” Alex informs him as he leans back against the pillows, Michael leers at him as he settles on the bed over top of him. One hand cradling his jaw as he kisses him.

Alex wraps his arms around him, keeping him close, wanting him closer. He feels engulfed in warmth, and Michael is hard against him.

“I love you,” he says softly, he tilts his head back when Michael’s lips drift down to his neck.

“Love you too,” Michael is rocking against him and he thinks the only thing that would be better is if Michael got out the lube and actually slid inside him.

It won’t be this time though, next time for sure. He’s definitely putting a foot down.

********************************

It’s dark when he wakes up, not even a hint of light coming through the windows. He’s not sure what woke him up.

Michael is curled around him still asleep, hand on his hip, forehead pressed to the back of his neck. Alex pushes back and Michael’s hand drops to his stomach, warm against his skin.

“Go back to sleep,” Michael mumbles against his skin and Alex hmms at him. Rolls over in Michael’s arms instead.

Alex runs a hand over his head, dragging his fingers through hair in disarray from sleep and kisses his cheek, the tip of his nose, his chin. Michael’s hand flexes against his hip, pulling him closer to him. Alex kisses him gently, close mouthed just a press of their lips together and he can feel more then hear the sigh as Michael rolls onto his back bringing Alex along with him.

He’s knows he probably too heavy, but Michael makes no complaint just kisses him again.

“We’re still alone,” Alex murmurs, he can feel Michael hard against him, he can see the lube out of the corner of his eye sitting there on the bedside table. It wasn’t there when they went to sleep just hours earlier, at some point Michael must have gotten up and put it there.

Michael just raises an eyebrow at him and Alex grins leaning over to snag it and drop it on the bed beside them.

He sits up, knees on either side of Michael’s chest, it’s not the most comfortable position to make love in, not for him anyway and he likely won’t be able to keep it up for very long without Michael’s hands on his hips helping him stay steady and move.

He flips the lid open and Michael watches with hooded eyes, just a hint of a smile dancing across his lips as he moves.

He wraps lube wet fingers around Michael, stroking once, twice and Michael moves one of his hands to hold himself steady as Alex sinks down on him.

Alex keeps a slow leisurely pace, and Michael lets him, just shifts underneath him, hands helping him keep balance and never breaking eye contact with him. Alex feels like he could never have Michael deep enough inside him.

It takes him by surprise when he comes, he’s not ready for it to be over. Under him Michael groans as he tightens around him and shoves up hard as his hands pull Alex down and comes himself.

“Jesus,” Michael mutters as Alex all but collapses against his chest, he can feel Michael’s lips against his forehead, a never-ending stream of kisses and Alex closes his eyes.

Just basks in the weight of Michael’s arms around him, and the steady thrum of his heartbeat. He closes his eyes and breathes.

It’s still dark outside, they still have time to sleep.

********************************

  



	8. Chapter 8

**Blood Bonds 8/?**

The bed is cold next to him when he wakes up, the bedroom door is cracked open and Alex can hear Michael moving around in the living room.

He rolls onto his back, stretches his arms above his head and breathes. His phone is on the end table, it wasn’t there when he went to sleep, he knows he didn’t take it out of his laptop so at some point after he passed out Michael had gotten up and plugged his phone into the charger.

He has 4 missed texts, 3 of them from Canvers, 1 from Max that was sent to both him and Michael and asking what time they wanted to go back to base and whether they should talk to Isobel before they go.

Michael has already responded to it, telling him that they’d meet him at 0900 in Alex’s office and that it was up to Max if he wants to bring Isobel when they really don’t have any answers for her.

He sets the phone aside and sits up, tugging on shorts that Michael has left on the bed and then getting the crutches under him so he can get up.

He goes into the bathroom and starts his morning routine, when he comes out feeling a hundred times more awake with a towel wrapped around his waist Michael is waiting at the door for him.

“How long have you been up?” Alex asks leaning into him as Michael settles a hand low on his back pulling him even closer, kissing him gently.

“Not long, maybe 45 minutes, made some burrito wraps to take with us and coffee,” Michael drags his lips across Alex’s cheek.

“So you probably want me to get dressed,” Alex murmurs and Michael holds him tight in his arms, face hidden in his neck and Alex strokes a hand over his head, tangling his fingers in curls and tugging gently.

They can stay like this for a few minutes.

********************************

Alex had debated for about ten minutes whether he should put his uniform on or go as a civilian, he pulls his uniform on even though Michael would probably rather he go in jeans and a flannel and be his boyfriend instead of the Captain.

The Captain is going to be able to open more doors then Michael’s boyfriend unfortunately.

“Good morning, sir,” Tulliver is on his feet looking annoyingly chipper for being at work on a Saturday when they should actually be on a weekend.

“Anything I need to know about?” Alex asks as Michael goes into his office and Alex stops in front of Tulliver’s desk. Tulliver hands over two files with a thumb drive balanced on top.

“No, sir. Been mostly quiet since you left last night.”

“Good,” Alex breathes a little easier. “Let Nasy know we’re here and have Evie stop in and see me if she’s still on site?”

“Yes sir.”

Max is already in his office, Isobel right next to him on the couch, she looks fragile and even though her face is perfectly made up he can still tell that she’s spent a good chunk of time crying.

“I already told her,” Max says, Isobel has one hand clenching Max’s and the other wrapped tightly around Michael’s.

“I haven’t had enough time to really talk to any of them yet,” Alex says. “There’s no reason to think that your mom is among the dead that were found.”

He thinks Zan would have been slightly more broken if his sister had been left behind, though he had almost all his focus on keeping Rath alive.

“He said she wasn’t there with them,” Max says and Isobel manages a watery smile, Alex didn’t think that Max had that long to have a conversation with Zan about who was or wasn’t kept captive with them. And maybe he’s known Max long enough that Max knows he is questioning his truthfulness.

“There were a few people that Mara asked specifically about, Vilandra was one of them, he said she wasn’t there with them,” Max says by way of explanation and Alex nods slowly.

Evie taps on the door frame and Alex waves her in, she has a tablet in her hand.

“They’re awake if you’d like to go sit with them,” she says warmly, there’s an expression in her eyes that Alex hasn’t seen in a while. Michael runs his hand along Alex’s shoulder as he comes behind his desk to take the absolute longest way out of the room possible.

Evie shuts the door when they’re all out, she doesn’t lock it which means likely Canvers or Nasy will be joining them.

“None of them are dying, right?” Alex holds up a hand to stop her from saying anything right away.

“No, still waiting for Rath to wake up, but that should be sometime today, the readings I’m able to get are all coming back at normal levels.”

“Okay,” Alex relaxes slightly, as long as he doesn’t need to call the three of them back and tell them ‘hey, sorry for getting your hopes up on more family but…’

He doesn’t ever want to have that conversation with Michael.

“Captain Fitzpatrick has sent the file with the pictures of the nine dead, I want to wait until everyone is awake and moving, possibly until they’re more physically stable as well before I ask any of them to try and identify them,” Evie says. “I am surprised to see you in uniform, you’re supposed to be off today.”

Her voice has that tone that indicates that she knows that _he_ knows that technically he is still supposed to be riding a desk and that she’s giving him some room but is going to need him to be remembering that sooner rather than later.

He is surrounded by people who know him too well.

“It’s just in case we need to push something, easier if I’m in uniform and trying to call up an issue then me trying to talk Lieutenant Davies through what he needs to do.”

Evie raises an eyebrow at him. She doesn’t believe him, which is fine, but he’s also only planning on staying until Mara kicks Michael, Max and Isobel out again.

********************************

Evie leaves to head back to her office and Alex makes a detour to check in with Sullivan, scanning his badge and fingerprint to get into the secure area of their warehouse.

Nasy’s ship is still there in the center of the room, powered down with cables running from connection ports to large data collection points.

Sullivan is sitting at the table right beside them, head bent over his laptop, headphones on totally engrossed in whatever lines of data are streaming across his screen.

“He’s got about ten more minutes before I’m tapping him out for a break,” Perkins says coming around the back side of the ship.

“We finding anything?”

“Nothing useful,” she says, “Sullivan went back to the first set of ship records that Nasy’s ship has recorded and the only thing we’ve found is there’s definitely a time period of maybe thirty to 40 minutes where nothing was being transmitted, before they started coming again, could be when our missing ships were taking off.”

“That would mean someone would have known they were leaving,” Alex says quietly. “Which then makes me question if they trying to hide the fact they got off Antar before it was destroyed; because it sure seems like someone didn’t want people on those ships to be looked for.”

“Yeah,” Perkins sighs. “Don’t have any answers for you on that avenue though, sir. Because it wasn’t just Nasy’s ship not getting those records, _no_ ship with the capability to receive them was getting records during that time period. At least none of the ones that we have the records for.”

Which is a good chunk of the ships.

Which means they might also not ever know who did or didn’t make it off Antar, not unless they manage to stumble across more Antarians they didn’t know about at secret prisons that were being run by Project Shepherd.

“I think we might need to talk to some people directly involved in Project Shepherd,” he says and Perkins’ eyebrows climb into her hair.

“And by people involved in Project Shepherd?” she asks slowly.

“I mean specifically my dad.”

“Yeah I was kind of afraid that was where this was going.”

********************************


	9. Chapter 9

**Blood Bonds 9/?**

When Perkins tags Sullivan out Alex takes his place, they still have no idea what they’re looking for. The coding in the Antarian ships navigation software is so many steps above what they are used to dealing with on a daily basis that a lot of times it feels like they’re just fumbling along hoping to stumble on something that will scream out at them.

Alex thought he understood computers, he understands their language and how they talk to one another, the way that the Antarian’s computers talk to each other is almost sentient.

Which he knows they’re not, he knows from Nasy that they had programmers that wrote the codes. It’s just really high-tech code for ships that were designed for space travel.

Sullivan is working backwards so Alex goes to the time stamps that he knows are from Nasy leaving Antar. Everything happened so fast from what Nasy and the other survivors remember, there was barely any time before the call for evacuation and then Antar’s destruction.

So he focuses on those brief hours when Nasy’s flight plan was logged, he can see it plain as day, can see what he assumes is the flight plan of the ship that likely ended up carrying Michael, Max and Isobel since it’s the only other ship that left at the exact same time as Nasy.

Then he starts going through the list of other flight plans logged after Nasy. They’ve gone over this before, they’ve gone through this code from other ships computers, Alex doesn’t really _expect_ to find anything.

But then he notices the delays, the code is set up that there should be no dead space but there is… the code of a ship flight plan and then space, space, space, ship flight plan, space, space.

“Fuck me,” he murmurs, he can feel Sullivan at his shoulder peering at his screen. He doesn’t say anything though Alex wonders if he just can’t see it yet.

“Change of plans,” Alex says and Sullivan slides into the chair to his right. “Dig into the hard-coded display instead of the actual data coming in.”

“You think they’re just hiding the text? That’s really simple.”

“Simple enough we didn’t find it in all years we’ve been looking at this data.”

“Well to be fair, sir, we didn’t know that we had missing ships so we weren’t exactly looking for hidden text,” Sullivan says.

“Whoever wrote it did it fast, chances are they just tacked it in at the end of the existing code,” Alex says and Sullivan nods.

When he pushes away from the table he can see Canvers standing there shoulder to shoulder with Perkins, arms crossed over his chest and an expression on his face that means that Perkins has already ratted him out.

“You know the General is never going to go for it,” Canvers says with a scowl and Alex arches an eyebrow at Perkins.

“We need answers,” Alex says sensibly as he gets to his feet.

“And we’ll get them, but not by putting you into a room with Sergeant Manes,” Canvers says.

“What are you doing in here?”

“Michael was looking for you, something about Ms. Ortecho is bringing lunch for everyone and he was trying to determine where you’d disappeared to before she arrived. I told him that I’d deliver you in time to eat your lunch still warm. Though I also told Doctor Jackson that I’d make sure you were out of here no later then 1500 and that if you choose to come in tomorrow that it’s in civies or she’s going to insist that you take some days off during the week to compensate for the lack of a weekend.”

“You’ve been busy,” Alex comments as he takes the water the Perkins hands over.

“Apparently people think that you listen to me or something, I don’t know where they get that from.”

********************************

Liz has just arrived with two bags of food when Canvers ushers him through the door, closing it firmly behind him when Alex is in the room.

“I have enough if he wants to…” Liz waves a hand and Alex shakes his head. He knows what Canvers is trying to do, and that is to keep Alex out of the line of sight of anyone who would or could question whether or not he’s _truly_ as desk locked as he’s supposed to be.

He is much to his chagrin, though probably not as much as his doctors would like him to be.

He’s hopeful that he’ll be released to mostly active status soon enough, Evie really only has a couple more milestones that he needs to hit before she’ll sign off on it.

Some of that will mean going back out in the field for likely shorter durations then they have in the past, and he’s not looking forward to the inevitable conversation that he’ll need to have with Michael when that happens.

As it stands, he’s likely not going to be cleared for any field ops so he doesn’t even need to _think_ about having that conversation, instead he sits down in the chair that Michael has saved for him and Michael leans over to press his cheek against his shoulder before he flips open his take out container.

Someone has moved a table and more chairs in, Zan is sitting next to Mara across from them and he looks overwhelmed by all the noise and people. Alex thinks that if Rath doesn’t wake by the time they finish eating lunch that Mara is going to insist they all leave so Zan can have a quiet room.

“Papa said Sergeant Canvers called about releasing Rosa tomorrow?” Liz asks, “but he wants us to come in and meet with you and a military lawyer first?”

“Just a formality,” Alex shrugs, he pretends to not notice Isobel tilting her head down, she’s not eating anything. Just poking her fork at her food, periodically Max makes a face at her and she’ll make a face back and take a bit. “Make sure we have all our bases covered.”

********************************

“We’re taking a break,” Isobel says when Alex manages to get her mostly by herself, which means he has Michael hovering at his shoulder and Max at hers.

Liz has gone off to hang out with Rosa and Mara and Zan are over back by Rath’s bed waiting for him to wake.

“Was this something you agreed on or…?” Alex asks because he’d told Noah to _talk_ to Isobel, not break her.

“He kept going on and on about how I wouldn’t have chosen him if Rosa had been alive and how it wasn’t fair to any of us that we never got to just end things,” Isobel sighs, her eyes are wet but she’s not crying. “Rosa and I might not even have lasted. And I’m not quite sure what he expects me to do.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex says, he doesn’t reach out a hand or attempt to offer her comfort, he makes eye contact with Max and he puts an arm over her shoulder and tugs Isobel into the curve of his arm.

“I love him,” Isobel says softly, almost absently. “I wouldn’t have married him if I didn’t love him.”

“Then there’s your answer.”

“I loved her too though,” she says, she pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, “It makes me angry to think of the time that was robbed from us that we’ll never be able to get back all because some _guy_ couldn’t take ‘not interested’ for an answer.”

********************************

Rath wakes slowly, fingers twitching and grasping at nothing before his eyes slowly slit open. Mara is out of her chair and perched on the bed right beside him, holding one of his hands clenched between hers before they’re fully open.

His eyes scan the room, focusing on each one of them individually as he blinks and takes even measured breaths.

Zan is already on his feet, moving to the opposite side of the bed from Mara, he lays a hand over Rath’s arm.

“This isn’t…” Rath starts, he winces as he looks up at the lights, eyes closing.

“Max there should be a dimmer control to the left of the switches,” Alex waves a hand and Max is by the door before he even has all the words out, turning the light intensity down by more than half.

“Well this is cozy,” Michael says, Alex brushes his hand against Michael’s. Let Michael curl their fingers together.

When he looks back to the bed Mara is leaning over pressing her lips to Rath’s forehead, Rath has reached up with one hand and has it curved around her the back of her head. Alex thinks he hears her sobbing quietly and she leans further over the bed, laying her head finally on Rath’s chest.

He curls an arm around her, holding her tight to him and he looks up at Zan with eyes that Alex can’t call anything but desperate.

Zan nods once and steps away from the bed.

“Come, come, let us give them a moment to themselves,” he says, and Alex has to tug on Michael’s hand to get him moving to the door.

“We’ll come right back,” he murmurs, and Michael looks torn between staying in the room with his parents and letting them have a moment without curious onlookers.

“We’ll stay right outside the door,” Alex says, “and we’ll let them have a few minutes to themselves and we’ll come right back.”

********************************

  



	10. Chapter 10

**Blood Bonds 10/?**

Alex leans against the wall trying to keep pressure off his leg and rolls his shoulders.

“How much time is enough time?” Michael asks keeping a steady eye on the door.

“If that were you and Alex in there how long would be long enough?” Max asks with an arched eyebrow and a barely hidden smirk.

“I’d tell you to come back tomorrow, or maybe Monday,” Michael says, “but you’re my brother not my parents so…”

“Few more minutes,” Alex murmurs just as the door opens.

Mara is beaming, though her eyes are wet with tears. She holds out her hand to Michael and beckons the rest of them with the other.

Alex lets them all enter first and loiters in the hallway for a moment before he steps in and closes the door behind him, he’s honestly surprised that no medical staff has come running at Rath’s awakening. He anticipates them arriving at some point.

Introductions have already been made when he goes in, Zan is back in his chair with Max hovering behind it, Isobel is sitting in the one that Mara had been occupying and her hands are folded together in her lap.

Rath is sitting up in the bed and looks much calmer then he had, no desperate eyes anymore and Mara perches beside him on the bed. She has an arm looped around Michael’s back while Michael has his arm draped loosely over her shoulders.

Michael looks over his shoulder and makes a motion with his head that Alex rolls his eyes at.

“This is Michael’s Alex,” Mara says and she smiles warmly at him.

When Alex moves up beside Michael he can tell right away that Rath has clocked the uniform.

“You are military?” he asks, and his voice sounds like Michael’s and not like Michael’s all at once, the cadence of their voices is just the tiniest bit different.

“Yes, sir,” Alex says, because he hasn’t forgotten long ago conversations with Nasy and he knows that Rath is General Rath.

Just like he knows that Zan is King Zan of a world that no longer exists.

********************************

He sends a formal inquiry when he gets back to his desk, he’s left Michael and Mara huddled around Rath’s bed, the three of them weren’t even talking when he left, they were just staring at each other.

He’s supposed to be packing up for the day though he hadn’t really _unpacked_ anything, it was mostly an excuse to allow them privacy.

He copies Canvers on the inquiry, though he knows that Canvers has likely already sent something to the General letting him know where Alex’s thoughts are taking him. He routes it directly to the General and outlines the questions he wants to ask of his father, so the General knows this isn’t just a whim.

This isn’t just Alex wanting time in a room with his father, this is him wanting answers to questions that there’s a good chance his father knows the answers to.

The General may hand the questions off to one of the other team leads, he probably _should_ do that, Alex shouldn’t be having any form of communication with his dad at all.

He thinks that there is the slimmest of possibilities that while Jesse Manes would not answer questions coming from anyone else, he might answer them coming from one of his sons. Jesse has been less then forthcoming in the interviews that have so far been conducted.

Alex is hopeful that the General might see this as the opportunity that Alex does, to get answers.

********************************

“Mom is staying,” Michael says when Alex gets back the room that Zan and Rath are being housed in. Max and Isobel are already gone and Zan is reclining back in his chair next to Mara looking relaxed and like he might fall asleep at any moment.

“You can stay if you want to,” Alex says, he doesn’t point out that they still have two vehicles there anyway so they’d have to drive home separately if only so Alex has his car for Monday morning.

“You should go home,” Mara says firmly, “we’re only going to talk about people and things that you don’t know.”

Michael still looks torn, they would have the cabin to themselves again and Alex is 100% less likely to pass out from exhaustion.

Rath touches his arm, squeezing gently until Michael looks at him.

“Go home,” Rath says, “from personal experience I tell you that you should always take the opportunity to sleep in a comfortable bed that is yours when the opportunity presents itself.”

“We’ll be back in the morning,” Alex says and Mara looks at him with raised eyebrows until he goes to her and busses a kiss against her cheek. “If you want us to come back and get you later you can let someone know and we can?”

Mara shakes her head and reaches out to link her fingers together with Rath’s again.

“Your Sergeant Canvers said that he could bring the other bed back but I think this one is large enough for both Rath and I to fit comfortably.”

“We’ve certainly spent time together in smaller ones,” Rath says and it startles a laugh out of Michael and Rath grins at the spots of red appearing in Michael’s cheeks.

********************************

Michael is quiet on the drive home, Alex rests his hand high on his thigh and sits in the quiet with him. The radio is turned so low that Alex can’t even tell what songs are playing.

The sky is dark when they arrive at the cabin, and Alex knows enough now to slide out the drivers’ side and let Michael’s hands steady him as he comes down out of the truck.

Michael uses his key to let them in, disarming and then rearming the alarms when they’re safely inside. Alex goes to the bedroom to change and remove the prosthetic, sliding into comfortable shorts and a faded t-shirt that he’s 90% sure is actually Michael’s and goes back out to the kitchen on crutches just as the microwave goes off.

There are already slices of thick bread laying on napkins on the table and Michael is putting stew into bowls though he stops Alex’s movement into the kitchen by pressing his hands to his hips and drawing him close.

“Hi,” he murmurs against his lips and Alex smiles into the kiss, hand coming up to cradle his face and keep him close. “We’re alone in the cabin again.”

“We are, but we missed dinner and if you’re thinking about dragging me off to bed to have your wicked way with me you might want to feed me first lest I pass out from the hunger instead of the exhaustion.”

Michael laughs, kissing him again before he nudges him in the direction of the table.

“The cabin’s not going to be big enough for four of us,” Michael says, his mouth twists in annoyance. Alex would comment that normally couples would be trying to get away from their parents, but then they’d also not been physically separated by the extreme circumstances that Michael was kept separated from his either.

“Five of us,” Alex says and Michael eyes him quizzically, “Zan is likely going to end up wherever Rath ends up, Rath is going to end up where Mara is, so there will be five of us here.”

He’s not sure what the relationship between the two men is, but there’s definitely a deep friendship and some severe co-dependence going on there, Mara had seemed to take Zan’s continued presence by Rath’s side as a given so he won’t question it unless she says something.

“We’re not fitting five people comfortably in this cabin.”

“We could talk to someone about expanding it, we’ll definitely need at least one more bedroom, maybe another bathroom,” he says idly, dipping his bread into the stew, Michael’s got Alex’s legs draped over his, hand that he’s not using to eat running in soft strokes over the stump and thigh.

“You’d be okay with that?” Michael asks, he doesn’t make eye contact, just staring at his stew like he expects Alex to get angry that he wants his parents living with them.

“Well making out in any room of the house besides our bedroom will definitely be out, but I kind of expected that your dad would be coming here,” Alex says softly which Michael makes a face at.

“Maybe see about clearing some trees, maybe put another cabin up?” Michael asks and Alex reaches out to touch his arm, waits for Michael to twist his hand over and links their fingers together and squeezes.

********************************

Michael is already in bed when Alex comes out of the bathroom, he’s lounging with sheets pushed down to his hips and propping himself up on one arm, he looks like what Alex would imagine sin to look like.

He stops next to the bed and pushes his shorts off as Michael comes up on his knees and drags his hands up his side to help him pull the t-shirt off, it’s awkward with the crutches in the way but they make it work and then Michael presses his hands against his hips and presses his lips to his belly.

Alex brushes his hand over his hair, leans down to kiss the top of his head before he shifts to leave the crutches within easy reach and crawl into the bed next to him.

Michael curls into his side, hand stroking along his stomach and hip, nuzzles along his neck, bites his ear before Alex twists his head so he can kiss him properly. Michael wraps a warm hand around him, not moving just holding him.

Alex sighs into the kiss, stroking his fingers across Michael’s cheek.

They’re not in any hurry.

********************************

  



	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unless the muses go completely crazy, about 2 more chapters left to go, then we're going to take a break for the Holidays.
> 
> Thank you to those that have stuck with me and this series!

**Blood Bonds 11/13**

Morning comes too early, Alex attempts to block out the fact the sun is starting to peek in the window by rolling over and curling against Michael’s side. Pressing his lips against Michael’s shoulder and running his fingers down the middle of Michael’s back.

“I’m awake,” Michael mumbles into his pillow, he’s flat on his stomach, head sort of resting on his pillow, one arm curled around it.

“No you’re not,” Alex murmurs against his skin as he rests his hand on the curve of Michael’s lower back.

Alex would never have known it until Michael was sharing his bed regularly, that Michael was a sprawler.

Likely the tiny bed in his Airstream that they’d only shared less than a handful of times made sprawling a bit difficult, if Michael had attempted to sprawl out Alex would have ended up on his ass on the floor.

Now Michael starfishes out, taking up as much of the bed as possible. Alex adores it, loves that he feels comfortable enough to do it.

Michael turns his head so he can peer at him over his arm, Alex just looks at him. At his barely open eyes, his hair is in complete disarray and he definitely needs to shave but he’s the most beautiful thing in the world.

They just look at each other, Alex stroking his fingers against sleep warm skin and Michael laughs at him, turning onto his side and resting his hand against the curve of Alex’s hip. He presses a close-mouthed kiss against Alex’s cheek and Alex inches closer, resting his forehead against Michael’s neck

He closes his eyes and breathes.

********************************

Michael goes into the bathroom first if they’re up at the same time and both need to leave at the same time. He jokes its because he’s faster then Alex but Alex has timed him, they take almost exactly the same amount of time in the bathroom.

He knows that Michael goes first because while Alex can put a bagel in the toaster and fry up an egg if need be in the morning, he also doesn’t really feel the need to. Michael likes to feed him.

When he makes it out to the kitchen Michael is already plating everything up, there’s coffee on the table with a bottle of water next to Alex’s little glass cup filled with the pills he takes in the morning. He’d gone through each of the pills with Michael at one point, which ones are morning pills, which ones are evening pills and which ones are both morning and evening.

He has them separated and color coded in a cupboard and Canvers keeps an extra set of all of them for those instances when he gets stuck at work and has to take them there.

On the counter he can see 3 containers stacked on top of each other which if he looks, he’s sure will be filled with food for his parents and Zan.

He doesn’t remind Michael that they feed them, he knows they do. He’s been there when they delivered food when Mara was staying there.

“I need to bring my car home tonight,” he says after he takes his pill and chews on a piece of toast.

“I can drop you off tomorrow morning and you can drive it home at the end of the day,” Michael says, he doesn’t look up at Alex’s side eye, focusing all his attention on his food in front of him.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me if you let me drive home,” Alex says softly.

“See I know this, but I also know that if you were with me nothing is going to happen either,” Michael says.

Alex puts down his fork and reaches out his hand to lay across Michael’s, linking their fingers together and squeezing. He leans in when he raises their joined hands and brushes his lips against Michael’s knuckles.

Michael smiles at him, a smile that turns into a smirk and Alex rolls his eyes and goes back to his food.

“We don’t have time for whatever thought you have going through your head, you told your mom you’d be back in the morning and I have to sit down with Arturo, Liz and Rosa.”

“I thought you weren’t working today,” Michael says with narrowing eyes.

“I’m not, not really anyway, just going over everything with them so Rosa can go home today if they feel okay about it,” Alex says firmly. He’s even going in civilian clothes, which is mostly to appease Evie, but still…

********************************

Arturo is in his office when he gets there, he’s left an extra coffee on Alex’s desk which technically Alex doesn’t need but won’t say no to.

“Liz and Rosa are…” Arturo waves a hand which Alex takes to mean they’re having sisterly bonding time.

Alex picks up the folders that have all the documentation he needs to hand off to Rosa, all the forms they need to sign. He leaves them all closed when he sits down next to Arturo, instead taking the folder that has Arturo’s documents in it.

“We can go through this first then,” Alex says, and he pushes the folder across the table at Arturo, taking a sip of his coffee as Arturo opens it and blinks. First at the documents then up at Alex in confusion.

“Alex… no puedes…” Arturo protests, he tries to push it back across the table at him and Alex shakes his head.

“Your family went through hell because of Andy Diaz’s actions,” Alex says, “this doesn’t make up for it, nothing will, but…”

“I am…” Arturo presses his hand to his chest.

“No more hiding,” Alex says, there’s a loud noise in the hallway and when he turns, he can see Rosa and Liz coming through the door one after the other. “Can you close that Liz?” he asks and Liz nods, pushing the door shut.

“Papa?” Rosa starts when she sees her fathers face, she stops in the middle of his office, stock still with fear on her face. Liz presses her hand to her back and gently guides her to the table.

“Alex was going through the documents,” Arturo says slowly, each word said carefully as he strokes his fingers down an ID that is his, down documents that say he is meant to be here.

When Alex had submitted his original requests, he’d asked that Arturo’s information be kept as close to what he had been using as possible, so as to not draw red flags.

Rosa’s _had_ to be different, she’s going to be a different person with a different life going forward. But Arturo is still Arturo.

Liz leans into her fathers’ side, looking over his arm at the documents laid out in front of them and when she looks at him her eyes are bright and shiny with unshed tears.

“Alex…” she breathes.

“It was the least we could do,” Alex says firmly, and he pushes Rosa’s documents over to her in a way that he hopes says they’re done discussing it.

********************************

Liz and Arturo leave with Rosa to pack up the meager amount of belongings she’s accumulated in the time she’s been with them.

He takes the quiet to log into his e-mail and there’s no actual response from his formal inquiry to the General unless the meeting invite for 1400 with the General and Lieutenant Davies is the response.

He uses the time between to check in with Sullivan, who has made some progress and has a list of names that the code was instructing the ship computers to ignore. There’s twenty-eight names on the list, a cursory look shows Mara and Rath and Zan all on it, as well as Isobel’s still missing mom Vilandra.

“I’ll keep digging, but I think that’s all of them,” Sullivan says.

“No, go back to Caulfield servers and have we got any hits on other searches?” Alex asks.

“You mean the ones where I had to make a cool pseudonym to go by?” Sullivan grins, watching him get excited about searches on the dark side of the web reminds Alex how young he is. He can vaguely remember getting excited the first time he got to do a deep dive.

Then he realized the dark side of the web is literally the dark side, there’s shit over there that he has locked up in a steel vault with fifteen locks in his brain because the depravity of some people is absolutely terror inducing.

“I’ve got some nibbles, nothing real to report on yet.”

Alex nods, he’s got his own nibbles but still nothing substantial to really dig into yet. He’s still not quite sure if that’s a good sign or a bad sign.

He’s hoping for good, but the way their luck goes in these matters it’ll likely be bad.

********************************

“So I’m not putting you in a room with Sergeant Manes,” the General starts and Alex nods, “and it’s not because the questions aren’t good, it’s because that’s exactly what he wants and I’m not about to give him anything he wants at the moment.”

“But you’ll send someone in with the questions?” Alex asks, because as much as he wants to be the one to ask them, he kind of expected nothing less.

“I already handed them over to the lawyers,” the General nods. “I take it from the direction the questions go that you must have found something?”

“We’re still working on documenting it,” Alex says. “But there’s code buried in all the ship nav systems that instructed it to hide the flight information for any flights with passenger manifests that included a specific set of names.”

“We’ve cross-referenced it with our known Antarian refugees?”

“Yes, sir. None of the names are listed with our group of knowns, three of the names on the list have been found at two liberated Project Shepherd sites.”

The General scowls, Alex exchanges a look with Davies because he looks angry, angrier then Alex thinks he’s ever seen the man in recent years.

“So we’re going to take it as a given until we’re proven wrong that there’s a good chance that all the names on your list were picked up and detained by Project Shepherd operatives.

“That seems to be the most likely scenario,” Alex says.

“Have you run the names by Nasedo yet? Or any of your other recently released?”

“We just got the list finalized this morning, I’ll discuss it with Nasy, then we’ll figure out a way to take it to the others without causing undue emotional distress.”

“They could be among the dead at our last site,” Davies says.

“Or the ones we haven’t named or accounted for at Caulfield.”

“I trust you gentlemen to handle it,” the General says, his disconnect is abrupt and Alex exchanges a grin with Davies.

“So schedule some time to sit down with Nasy in the morning?” Davies asks.

Alex rubs his hands over his face, “yeah, let them have the day to finish resting and recuperating, then we’ll hit Nasy with the names and if we need to we can pull in whoever he thinks will be able to give us some insight.”

********************************

  



	12. Chapter 12

**Blood Bonds 12/13**

“So mom likes the idea of a separate cabin,” Michael says when they’re curled up on the couch together eating stew out of bowls.

The tone of his voice has Alex raising a brow, because it sounds like _Michael_ might not like that idea.

“She thinks we need our own space back,” Michael continues, his lips are turning down as he stares at his bowl. He’s pouting, Alex shouldn’t find it as cute as he does.

“You know it’s going to take a little bit of time to get the trees cleared and the space ready to even start building on,” Alex says, “It’s not like they’re going to be moving into a separate place right away, not unless they want to stay at the house with the others.”

“Max wants his dad to stay with him, his dad shot it down pretty quick. He’s staying with my dad, and if my dad is here with mom then his dad is going to stay here too.”

Alex can visualize the room that Mara has been living in, it’s big enough for one person, would probably be big enough for Mara and Rath, it’s _not_ going to be big enough for Mara, Rath and Zan.

Where even would Zan sleep, the bed itself is a full because as much as Isobel wanted to put a queen or king in the room, the room was just not big enough.

“The couch is comfortable enough for napping on, I would not recommend it for long term sleeping,” Alex murmurs.

“There’s always the creepy detox bedroom,” Michael says.

“It’s not easily accessible without moving all the furniture again,” Alex reminds him, which he doesn’t want to do. He’s kind of okay with leaving a rug and the furniture over it while they decide what they want to do with the space.

He’d been thinking different stairs and using it for storage, there are no windows and it’s dark and he wouldn’t want anyone living in it.

“We’ll get someone to come out and give us an estimate, get the ball moving on another cabin for them, the girls are probably going to want to help,” Alex says, even as he says probably, he knows it’s a definitely.

Isobel, at least, is going to latch onto idea of creating a new livable space with both hands and utilize it as a distraction from Noah and Rosa.

“Yeah, I know a guy that won’t dick around on the prices,” Michael says, he leans in for a kiss when he takes Alex’s bowl from him. He comes right back so Alex knows he just dropped them in the sink.

“I’ll do them up later,” he says when Alex just looks at him. He squeezes into the space between Alex and the arm of the couch which is his unspoken indication that he wants to cuddle. So Alex shifts so Michael can curl around him.

Relaxes into warm arms and tilts his head back into the curve of Michael’s neck. Michael kisses his temple and runs his hands down Alex’s side. Skimming them under his t-shirt so they can rest on the bare skin of his stomach.

“We’re not sleeping on the couch,” Alex murmurs and Michael hums his agreement but doesn’t move.

********************************

Alex has just gotten settled at his desk, he’s sorting through the notes left on his desk from people who figure the fastest way for them to get to his undivided attention is to make sure their post it is the one on top.

Mara taps on the door while he’s sorting through them and he smiles at her.

“No Michael this morning?” she smiles as she sits in the chair opposite his desk, she looks well rested and lighter. Having Rath back has been good for her.

“He got a towing call from Sanders phone when I was getting ready to leave, he’ll be in later I’m sure.”

“He was his father’s little shadow when he was much smaller, always wanting to be with him when Rath was home and not off winning skirmishes for Zan.”

“Something I can help you with?” Alex asks.

“Nasedo said you found something in the ship nav computers finally.”

Alex hadn’t even known Nasy had been privy to what he and Sullivan had just found, but Canvers must want to clear names off the list so they can determine how many people they theoretically can still expect to find locked up in defunct Project Shepherd prisons.

“It was a list of 28 names that was being crosschecked over ship passenger logs, any ships that had passengers with those names was removed from the manifests being sent to all navigation systems.”

Mara breathes, folds her hands together in her lap.

“I’m on that list,” she says, she flinches when Alex nods once. “Rath and Zan as well?”

“Yes,” her hands are going white from how hard she’s squeezing them together, Alex wishes almost desperately that Michael was there.

“Can you think of any reason…” he starts and she shakes her head.

“I’d have to look at the list of names,” she says, “when Nasedo said there were names found I thought they’d be Zan’s war council, but then I remembered that Nasedo said that he didn’t have a flight plan listed for the ship I’d been on…”

“We don’t have to talk about this now, Mara,” Alex says quietly. “We can wait until after Rath and Zan are healthy and…”

“Rath and Vilandra wrote the second line of code that you found in the children’s pods,” Mara says suddenly, her voice quiet. “He told Zan and I last night that Vilandra found the first line, the one that would have likely killed our children, when she was doing last sweeps before they put them in the pods.”

“Do you think they could have wrote the code we found in the navigation systems?”

“No, we didn’t write that code,” comes from the doorway and when Alex turns his head he can see Rath standing there, Zan and Tulliver both hovering behind him.

“Sorry sir,” Tulliver says, “I didn’t know you had someone in here already.”

“The door is open,” Alex says as he waves the two men in, if they’d been having a private discussion, he would have closed it, locked it, made sure the blinds were closed. Zan has his hand low on Rath’s back as they come in, like he’s steadying him.

“Nasedo told us what you found, we didn’t write that code, navigation systems are temperamental beasts, we would never muddy the existing code with additions,” Rath says, where Mara looks well rested and something bordering on healthy. Rath looks exhausted and pale, both men do really.

They probably wouldn’t have last much longer at the prison and he wonders if that was the point. Did the prison get abandoned in the hopes that the remaining prisoners would just die off?

********************************

“Half of these names are of members of the war council,” Zan says when Alex checks on them after lunch, he’d given Canvers and Nasy the go ahead to give them the list.

“Just half?” Alex asks.

“The other names are not familiar to me,” Zan admits, “But I didn’t know everyone that served on council by name.”

“You didn’t appoint them yourself?”

Zan shakes his head and stares at his fingers, he pointedly doesn’t look over at where Rath is sighing at him and Mara is hiding a smile behind her fingers.

“I appointed them, they’re mine,” Rath says finally, he scowls, “And no I wasn’t attempting to overthrow Zan, I won the war so _he_ would be on the throne, if I wanted him off the throne I would have simply removed him and put someone else on it. I gave him people that would have been in the best position and have the greatest knowledge to make certain we didn’t need to go through it all over again.”

“Some think you should have been the one on it,” Zan says idly and Rath snorts.

“I have no desire to be on the throne,” Rath mutters, “Can you see me in all the frippery they force on you, I would have shot someone.”

Rath looks at him, eyes dark and looking exactly like Michael at his angriest.

“With the exception of Mara and Vilandra, all the names on the list were council, likely the inclusion of Mara and Vilandra on it were because they were family.”

“Or because Ava loathed us and our influence upon you and by extension upon Zan,” Mara mutters, Rath reaches out a hand to her and stares at her until she takes it, folding their fingers together.

“I’ve marked the list of those that I know were lost at Caulfield,” Mara says, Zan hands the paper to him and Alex can see dashes next to four names, when he looks up again Mara is leaning over the bed to kiss Rath gently. Fingers stroking through his hair.

“Sixteen were lost with us,” Zan says, tone somber.

“That leaves five unaccounted for,” unspoken is that means there has to be at least one more Project Shepherd site out there holding Antarians.

********************************

_Isobel wants to come for dinner ok?_

Alex is hoping that Isobel wanting to join them for dinner might mean she’s ready to talk about the Noah situation. He knows she’s only been to see Rosa a handful of times, he can’t even imagine how Isobel is dealing with the situation. Noah leaving while she tries to come to grips with it is probably not helping matters any.

_Do I need to stop for anything?_

_Nope, already got everything_

********************************

“Noah thinks I don’t know what I want,” Isobel says after they’ve eaten dinner and Michael has placed all their dishes in the sink and pushed them in the direction of the living room. He’s got Alex tucked under his arm and Isobel is in the recliner with legs curled up under her.

She’s got the remainder of the wine she and Michael had split at dinner in a cup in her hand, Alex had stuck to water since it’s a work day.

“What do you want?” Alex asks. Isobel makes a face at her glass, she looks sad.

“I want things to be how they were,” she murmurs. “He says I need to figure out if Rosa and I could be anything, but it’s been over ten years, I’m not that girl anymore.”

Alex looks at her and she wrinkles her nose at him.

“I’m not saying that if there weren’t a Noah and Rosa and I had just met in a bar that it wouldn’t have been a thing, it would have been, have you seen her? She’s gorgeous,” Isobel sighs. “But I’m not seventeen anymore, and I’m not searching for someplace I belong. I love my husband… I know where I belong.”

“I’m assuming you mentioned all this to Noah?”

“He thinks she and Rosa got dealt a shit hand, that they should have the chance to see if they could have had something,” Michael murmurs. Isobel just rolls her eyes.

“Rosa has got enough to worry about with trying to settle back into a new life, the last thing she needs to also be worrying about is that my husband apparently wants to set up a time share on me for some insane reason,” Isobel stares at her glass. “If it were anyone but Noah I would think he was angling for a threesome, but he’s not that adventurous and I already told him, twice that Rosa isn’t into guys.”

********************************

  



	13. Chapter 13

**Blood Bonds 13/13**

Tuesday morning is a repeat of Monday morning, sans Mara meeting him in his office. Instead he has Evie waiting patiently for him.

“Do you never leave? Do I need to talk to someone?” Alex asks when he goes in and turns on his computer, Evie following behind him closing the door behind her.

“I wanted you to hear it from me and not whatever grapevine is at work this morning,” Evie starts, she’s got his folder closed on her lap.

Alex feels that twist in his gut, the same one he got when they first told him a year earlier that they weren’t going to release him back to an active status.

There must be some sort of dread written into the lines of his face, though Evie was there the first time they had this discussion, with the General and Canvers looking on.

Her face softens some, a hint of a smile on her lips.

“You’re doing really well, you’ve progressed much faster than we really had anticipated you moving.”

“Motivation,” Alex says, and a desire to get back to work. He’s tired of having to foist things off on Canvers or Davies because he’s not supposed to be doing anything besides sitting behind a desk and playing computer games.

“I think being back here has helped you some as well,” Evie says. “You have a very nice support structure set up now, I think they’re helping you balance work and having a life outside of work, back right after the incident you had only your teams and the General. Everything in your life revolved around the Project.”

“What are you saying?” Alex asks, he taps his fingers along his desk.

“I submitted the final report to the General this morning,” Evie stands and sets the folder in front of him. “We’re recommending a return to your full responsibilities,” she holds up a hand when Alex opens his mouth, “within reason of course, you _are_ still missing a limb now, that means that hiking through deserts in covert operations is not going to happen, but all your other tasks can resume.”

“That literally only happened twice, and one of those times was the time…” Alex waves in the direction of his leg.

“Congratulations Captain,” Evie smiles gently at him. “Still want to see you every three months or so, therapists are still a given…”

“So status quo, except, you know, I can do my actual job now,” Alex grins and Evie laughs.

“Don’t front Captain, I know you were mostly doing your actual job all along.”

********************************

He sends the meeting request to his senior staff group to report to his office at 1300, there’s only four of them, but there’s something gratifying about being able to send it to the group and know it’s going to the right place.

Canvers, Perkins, Barrows and Nasy are all waiting in the hallway when he gets back from data trawling with Sullivan and checking in on Mara, Rath and Zan.

He ushers them in, closes the door and locks it and Canvers twists the blinds shut before he takes his seat.

“So full duty as of this morning,” Alex says and Nasy claps and Canvers lets out a loud breath that is echoed by Perkins and Barrows.

“Thank freaking god,” Canvers murmurs as he opens up his laptop, Alex is sure he’s getting ready to send off whatever document he’s been compiling for all the stuff that Alex is technically supposed to be responsible for but Canvers had to take over when he was shackled to his desk.

“We’ve got field visits scheduled for three months for now they were cutting it extremely close to the wire,” Perkins says, “also, that gives you just about 90 days or so to figure out how to explain to your Mr. Guerin about what our TDY’s entail and the length of them.”

Alex is not looking forward to that conversation with Michael, though none of the places they’ll be visiting should have any reason to cause Michael anxiety, the chances of Alex coming back missing another limb are so slim as to be nonexistent.

“Start setting up the list now and send out any notifications that haven’t already gone,” Alex taps his pen against the table. “We’ve also got the possibility of at least one more Project Shepherd site due to the missing that Mara, Rath and Zan were able to identify.”

Barrows makes a face, “it’s either on mothballs or a super-secret site, we’re almost through all the documents we took from your dads bunker and from Caulfield, we haven’t even had a whisper of coordinates we haven’t been able to send someone to check out.”

“We’ll still keep digging until we exhaust every possible option or we find them,” Alex says.

“Can we spread the word that we’re back in full operation?” Canvers asks as he pushes his chair back and stands.

“Not a secret, you can start spreading out the teams and we might want to do some training exercises, so our newbies know what to expect. First set of field visits no more then one or two of them to a team,” Alex says.

“Barrows and I’ll handle it,” Canvers grins at him.

The three of them leave, laptops under their arms, Perkins closes the door behind them as Alex looks over at where Nasy has a pensive look on his face.

“What’s on your mind?” he asks and Nasy shrugs at him, Alex waits him out. Nasy hates silence, won’t actually be able to sit there just the two of them with nothing being said.

“They were sure there was still five unaccounted for?” Nasy finally asks.

“The list I got back from them had five, Zan’s sister and four others that the three of them couldn’t account for; Zan thought they might have been on the same ship though he was unsure, he just knows they weren’t on the one that he and Rath were on and Mara says they weren’t on hers.”

Nasy sighs heavily.

“I feel guilty,” he says softly, he won’t meet Alex’s eyes.

“What on earth do you have to feel guilty about?”

“Because I never dug, I never saw their names on the flight logs, so I just made the assumption as likely everyone else did that they hadn’t made it off Antar. I didn’t even know we should have been looking for them. If things had happened differently Michael might never have gotten his parents back, Max might never have gotten his, and now I worry that we’re still missing five and Isobel will never get her mother back because I didn’t know we were supposed to be looking for them.”

“But things didn’t happen differently,” Alex says gently. “Michael got his mom back, and now he has his dad. Max has his father, and we won’t rest until we can give Isobel and Zan answers as to what happened to Vilandra.”

********************************

  



End file.
